Promote and migration
“The family is the cornerstone of society and we are required to support the well-being and health of migrants and their families. This essentially means that we must make a determined effort to ensure that all migrants are empowered to achieve their potential as human beings, and that families are empowered and kept whole.”
Pope Francis, 2018 World Day of Migrants and Refugees Message
Pastoral Migratoria 2023 Lenten Calendar
Introduced in 2010, Pastoral Migratoria invites Hispanic immigrants to respond to their baptismal call to holiness and engage in service and justice actions in their parish communities. Currently, more than 200 Hispanic lay leaders and 40 Hispanic parishes actively participate in Pastoral Migratoria in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Pastoral Migratoria also responds to the call to evangelize and bring individuals and society to Christ.
Since 2006, Pastoral Migratoria has been providing a Lenten calendar asking all Catholics to accompany immigrants and refugees on their journey for justice. This year National Pastoral Migratoria is asking to pray, fast and act in support of protecting and documenting immigrants and refugees who are searching for safety but instead find denial and detention.
PRAY: We pray to you, God the Father of all peoples, you who called your chosen ones out of Egypt, and guided them through the desert with bread from heaven. Protect the migrant families who are coming to this nation with your mercy. You gave to us your only Son, Jesus the refugee, who preferred the way of the cross above all else, and rose from the tomb, transcending death. Bring new spiritual life to the migrants on their journey. With Him, you sent the Holy Spirit to accompany us, your children, throughout the whole world and to proclaim justice and mercy for sinners. Help us every day to welcome those whom you send to us as missionaries. Amen.
FAST: On Fridays during Lent, abstain from meat and eat one simple meal of rice and beans to commemorate Christ’s fasting in the wilderness and to empathize with the immigrants and refugees coming to our country “hungry” for a safe and dignified life.
ACT: During Lent, serve migrant families at the border and in detention by giving or volunteering to one of the Catholic respite centers on the border, such as Annunciation house in El Paso, Texas, Kino Border Initiative in Nogales, Arizona. Support refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine through Welcome.us, or Heartland Alliance. Speak out in defense of DACA, the program for children whowere brought here by their migrant parents.
National Pastoral Migratoria and Justice for Immigrants invites everyone — individuals, classrooms, and parishes — to use this calendar during the Lenten season to nourish a deeper compassion and a lived spirituality of following Christ in these difficult times. Let us be challenged to see the face of Christ in all those we call a stranger, to see the suffering of Christ in immigrants and refugees and to work toward immigration reform that will preserve human dignity and preserve families.