The Tablet January 1, 2005

Our Diocese of Immigrants

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

In conjunction with the feast of the Epiphany, the Bishops of the United States have designated Jan. 2-8 as the principal celebration of National Migration Week under the theme, "A Journey of Peace and Hope." The Holy Father himself has dedicated Jan. 16 as "World Day for Migrants and Refugees." In our own Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, we usually wait until the late spring to celebrate this event officially, but in the "Diocese of Immigrants" our parishes are living celebrations of our multi-ethnic identity.

In many parts of the country and of the world, Migration Day is celebrated with folkloric customs, ethnic foods, multi-lingual liturgies and school events. In Brooklyn and Queens, these types of things happen on a regular basis, making our diocesan celebration in the spring a type of summary of who we are as a local Church.

However, it is not enough to attend to the external elements that indicate our identity; we must also be certain that we witness to the fact that we all form the Mystical Body of Christ. The needs and concerns of any part of the body affect the whole body.

The Church takes note of the fact that, on any given day, over five million people in the world are refugees, fleeing persecution, seeking human rights, searching for their own dignity to be recognized.

In the decade of the 1990's more than 11 million immigrants arrived in the United States. Many of these were on this journey of peace and hope, all in search of a better life for themselves and their children, and all eager to contribute to American society by their hard work, their taxes, their cultural richness and their faith.

As people get to know them in our parishes, we often hear stories of tremendous hardship and bravery from people sitting next to us in our pews.

Occasions like National Migration Week help to focus the Church's attention on our mission among newcomers. Whenever parishes choose to celebrate it, the activities should reflect the gifts that immigrants bring to us here, as well as their constant fight for just laws, for family reunification, for an end to racism and xenophobia, and for peace and freedom in their lives.

One just needs to page through our recently published history of the Diocese of Brooklyn, which bears the title "Diocese of Immigrants–the Brooklyn Catholic Experience, 1853-2003," to understand how the faith and hard work of poor immigrants have always resulted in the building of the Church. It is hoped that this year each parish might search out its own history in order to teach the message of Migration Week.

Our clear witness must be formed by the teaching of the Church, which has been consistent in its application and rests on the solid foundation of scripture and tradition. The Church has always taught that people should not be forced to leave their homeland, and that everything should be done to provide dignity and human rights for everyone in the country where they were born. However, when these conditions cannot be met, people have a right to seek them elsewhere, wherever another nation can accommodate or accept them without disturbing the common good.

The Holy Father, in his Migration Week message this year, stresses the proper spirit of integration, noting that this is not something that is easy to define. He says "integration is not presented as an assimilation that leads migrants to suppress or forget their own cultural identity. Rather, contact with others leads to discovering their "secret," to being open to them in order to welcome their valid aspects and thus contribute to knowing each one better. This is a lengthy process which aims to shape societies and cultures, making them more and more a reflection of the multi-faceted gifts of God to human beings."

The first American Saint, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, whose order--the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus--is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, was herself an immigrant who came here from Italy, and eventually became a U.S. citizen. This brave, dedicated Catholic immigrant left behind for us a rich legacy of schools, hospitals, clinics, orphanages, and other services that still operate today. She walked the very streets of Brooklyn at the beginning of the 20th century, and lived the true missionary zeal, which any celebration of Migration Day might hope to instill in all of us.

In my recent pastoral letter on the New Evangelization, I pointed out that immigrants here "face unique circumstances that must be taken into account in any outreach of the New Evangelization . . .they bring with them the challenge of the plurality of languages, religious traditions and ways of life that affect our parishes. There are many opportunities amidst these challenges for evangelization."

It is my hope that we will all use the occasion of National Migration Week to renew our own dedication to the Church's mission. Along with our own commitment at the diocesan level through the good work of the Catholic Migration Office and Catholic Charities, each parish shares in our responsibility as a Church to "welcome the stranger in our midst," as they and we put out into the deep.