How the Church Responds to Immigrants

A two-day conference was held Los Angeles earlier this month to examine how Catholic institutions responded to migrants in the first half of the 20th century compared to now.

The symposium was keynoted by Bishop David O’Connell, Los Angeles auxiliary, and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and was intended to advance the goals of the Catholic Integration Initiative.   The Initiative is a program of the Center for Migration Studies to examine how Catholic institutions such as schools, hospitals and charities that supported the migration of Catholics from European nations in the early 1900s are adapting or need to adapt in order to serve migrants today, who are primarily arriving from Central and South American and Asian countries.

“While the Catholic Church’s work with immigrants remains robust, its US institutions have not fully pivoted to meet the needs and incorporate the gifts of the nation’s record number of immigrants and their children,” say Initiative organizers.

Video and podcasts of the Conference will be available at CMS soon but the site contains a multitude of multimedia resources from migration experts already.

The conference was sponsored by the Center for Migration Studies New York, Loyola, Mount Saint Mary’s University and Providence St. Joseph Health.

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