World Day of Migrants and Refugees
The Church observes the World Day of Migrants and Refugees each year. This year, it will be observed on September 29.
Each year, the Church celebrates World Day of Migrants and Refugees. On this day, we are asked to pray in a special way for vulnerable people on the move and to demonstrate our commitment to our biblical call to “welcome the stranger.” The Pope typically releases a message in advance of World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which this year is celebrated on September 29. The message offers new themes for the faithful to reflect on as they work to serve the migrants and refugees in their midst.
This year, the Pope has chosen the theme “It is not just about migrants.” His message emphasizes that the rejection of migrants and refugees by many economically advanced societies is a sign of “moral decline” and that the presence of vulnerable displaced people provides an opportunity to “recover some of those essential dimensions of our Christian existence,” namely, the awareness that all of us are deeply loved by God, even and especially in our great weaknesses. In caring for vulnerable strangers, we help heal our societies and grow in awareness of God’s abundant love.
As we observe this World Day of Migrants and Refugees, we are painfully aware that our country continues to close its doors to refugees. The U.S. has on average welcomed 95,000 refugees annually for resettlement, but in the past year the government admitted under 20,000. President Trump just announced that the maximum number of admitted refugees this upcoming year will be 18,000 – a number so low that it will cause many local resettlement programs to shut down.
Likewise, we lament the treatment of migrants at our southern border, including our nation’s practices of immigrant detention, family separation, and border militarization. However, we celebrate the commitment of local communities to stand against these practices and provide humane alternatives and services to vulnerable migrants and asylum seekers.
We invite you to mark the World Day of Migrants and Refugees by taking these actions:
- Pray for migrants and refugees.
- Read the Pope’s message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees on September 29, 2019: http://bit.ly/2019wmrd
- Ask your Senators to support the Grace Act which would set the minimum number of refugees resettled in the United States each year at 95,000 — the historic average for our nation.
- Read about the ways local communities are caring for migrants and refugees.
This event originates from the circular letter “The Pain and the Worries” sent by the Consistorial Congregation on 6 December 1914 to Italian diocesan ordinaries, in which for the first time it was proposed to institute an annual day for raising awareness of the phenomenon of migration and also to promote a collection in support of pastoral works for Italian emigrants and for the formation of missionaries of emigration. As a consequence of this missive, the first World Day of Migrants and Refugees was held on 21 February 1915.