For 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.
National Migration Week for 2021 takes place September 20-26, and will climax with the Vatican’s celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR), which always falls on the last Sunday of September.
The primary theme for this year’ WDMR is “Towards an ever wider ‘WE’”.
In his letter announcing this year’s theme, Pope Francis emphasizes that “this focus calls on us to ensure that ‘after all this, we will think no longer in terms of ‘them’ and ‘those,’ but only ‘us’’ (Fratelli tutti, no. 35). And this universal us must become a reality first of all within the Church which is called to cultivate communion in diversity.”
In solidarity with the Vatican, National Migration Week will use the same theme as WDMR – “Towards an ever wider WE” – but will emphasize the particular ways in which this theme and its application to the migration question is important for the Catholic Church in the United States.
