Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Migration, welcomed President Biden’s decision to permit up to 125,000 refugees to enter the United States during the 2023-24 fiscal year, as he had for the previous two fiscal years.
The universal Church commemorates the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on September 24, and the Church in the United States commemorates National Migration Week from September 18-24.
(OSV News) As the Catholic Church in the U.S. marks National Migration Week Sept. 18-24, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, chair of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration, highlighted the need to "address the coercive forces driving people to migrate."While often used interchangeably, the terms "migrant" and "refugee" are separately defined Respond with charity to migrants and help address issues driving them away from their homes.
Bishop Seitz referenced the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt, in which the child Christ, the Blessed Mother, and St. Joseph were forced to flee to Egypt when Kin.
"Angels Unawares," a work by Timothy Schmalz on The Catholic University of America's campus, depicts 140 immigrants. / Credit: Peter Pinedo/CNA
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 15, 2023 / 19:10 pm (CNA).
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is highlighting the overlooked right to remain in one’s country during its weeklong celebration of National Migration Week from Sept. 18–24.
“For millennia, people have been forced to flee their homelands, seeking safety and security, because of factors beyond their control,” El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz, the chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, said in a statement ahead of the celebration.
Bishop Seitz referenced the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt, in which the child Christ, the Blessed Mother, and St. Joseph were forced to flee to Egypt when King Herod intended to kill Christ by slaughtering infants. He said the flight “was not the result of a free decision