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Celebrating National Migration Week 2017For nearly a half century, the Catholic Church in the United States has celebrated National Migration Week, which is an opportunity for the Church to reflect on the circumstances confronting migrants, including immigrants, refugees, children, and victims and survivors of human trafficking. This year\’s theme is Creating a Culture of Encounter and begins next week, January 8-14, 2017. The theme draws attention to Pope Francis\’ call to create a culture of encounter by looking beyond our own needs and wants to those of others.
With respect to migrants, too often in our contemporary culture we fail to encounter them as persons, and instead look at them as others or render them invisible. We do not take the time to engage migrants in a meaningful way, as fellow children of God, but remain aloof to their presence and suspicious of their intentions. During this National Migration Week, take the opportunity to engage migrants as community members and neighbors – all of whom are worthy of our attention and support. For more information, access the USCCB Toolkit by clicking here.
Also, see CRL\’s webpage for more information about our advocacy efforts for farm and food processing workers, click https://catholicrurallife.org/impact/farm-worker-advocacy/