The World Refugee & Migration Council extends its deepest sympathies to Catholics around the world. One of the highlights of Pope Francis’s legacy was his longstanding commitment to addressing the plight of the world’s most vulnerable, especially refugees and migrants.
At a time when many of the world’s richest and most powerful nations are turning their backs to the plight of the forcibly displaced, Pope Francis’s Easter message “to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas” is one we should all take to heart and act on.
As The New York Times noted in its obituary, Pope Francis shifted the church’s emphasis “to global problems like climate change, poverty and migration. His first papal trip out of Rome was to Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island that had become the point of arrival for thousands of African migrants crossing the Mediterranean.”
Pope Francis cited poverty, violence & drug trafficking as causes of migration to the U.S. https://t.co/8hpeclMbJC pic.twitter.com/Mz1jXu3Sh7
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) February 18, 2016
Pope Francis, the Catholic Church's first Latin American pope, presided during a period of historic global migration. He made compassion for migrants and marginalized people the foundation of his papacy. https://t.co/OcCusqZkFv
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) April 21, 2025
Despite the Catholic church’s history of efforts to welcome and support refugees and migrants it has recently been forced, like many charitable organizations, to drastically cut its programs.
In April, the Associated Press reported that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was ending a half-century of partnerships with the United States federal government to serve refugees and children, saying the “heartbreaking” decision follows the Trump administration’s abrupt halt of funding for refugee resettlement.
UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said of Pope Francis: “You stood up and spoke out — relentlessly — for the poor, the persecuted, the victims of war, the refugees, the migrants. May you continue to give us faith and courage in this brutal world.”
Pope Francis' (@Pontifex) message is simple – we need to open our hearts to refugees. #WithRefugees pic.twitter.com/kt3f0J7QvX
— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) July 2, 2021
