By Naomi Beauclair
Immigration Legal Services Program Manager, Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska
“Welcome the stranger.”
This is our missional focus among the works of mercy for the immigration legal services team at CSS. While the immigration legal assistance we provide to the community could look like the social service rendered by any other local non-profit that is also certified by the Department of Justice to practice immigration law, welcoming the stranger “as Christ” calls the team to serve both the practical and spiritual needs of immigrants. It is simply not enough to file various applications successfully (like green cards and citizenship) to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
One afternoon a couple of months ago, while I was working at my computer, I heard the big glass door slide open behind me. I swiveled and was called into an unscheduled meeting with a former immigration legal services client. I sat down with our caseworker and client, who was clearly distraught, and quickly learned why.
“I am Christian,” she confessed, courageous in her conviction. Her words pierced the silence of my work, so unlike the words I had been reading. I immediately thought of the martyrs of the early Church who insisted, “I am a Christian.” We gently listened, and when she had the right words in English she continued, “And my family, we [are] Christian. They kill[ed] my family.” Compassion and humility struck our hearts, knowing that always, faith in Christ costs our life… though not always like this.
Our client had come to the U.S. as a refugee several years ago through CSS and maintained connections with her family and friends back in her hometown of Suwayda, Syria, roughly 150 miles northeast of Jerusalem and 70 miles south of Damascus. She has been learning English and trying to establish herself here, as Syria is clearly unsafe. She explained (in English and Arabic) what happened.
Her family and friends back home in Suwayda had been captured, with no way out. Shortly after videos of their horrific executions were shared, the internet was cut, without a means to contact those who survived. She came to us stuck, wanting to help them, somehow, with anything. We did what we could, then prayed together. “Why?!” she couldn’t understand the injustice inherent in persecution. “It is [the] land [of] Jesus.”
For the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees (Oct. 4-5), Pope Leo XIV wrote a letter calling Catholic immigrants to be witnesses of hope in the new country that welcomes them.
“‘All Christians are called to this witness,’” Leo declared, quoting Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi. “‘[But] we are thinking especially of the responsibility incumbent on migrants in the country that receives them.’”
Leo explained, “In a special way, Catholic migrants and refugees can become missionaries of hope [who] remind the Church of her pilgrim dimension, perpetually journeying towards her final homeland, sustained by a hope that is a theological virtue.”
Sent out, albeit by their circumstances, Catholic immigrants in a particular way witness to this search for happiness with great hope and trust that Christ will bring their sojourn to completion, rewarding them with eternal life with Him in His Kingdom, our true native land; the heavenly Jerusalem. Immigrants are called to be courageous in bringing Christ to all amid the global, radical, non-Christian cultural and political mores; they are called to proclaim, “I am a Christian” right here in America. But they can’t do it alone. And paperwork by itself won’t help.
Immigrants need “ongoing support” to fulfill their mission. Pope Leo called on communities that welcome immigrants to give them support by “be[ing] a living witness to hope, one that is understood as the promise of a present and a future where the dignity of all as children of God is recognized.”
When we live the Christian life, we live out our baptismal graces, the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity which directly relate us to God through our incorporation into his Body, the Church, as adopted children within his divine life. Since we’re in the business of the works of mercy at CSS, successfully welcoming the stranger means both providing knowledgeable technical legal expertise and proclaiming, “I am a Christian” by our union with Christ through suffering in hope.
When one member of the Body of Christ is persecuted for defending Truth in one way or another, and flees to make a new home elsewhere, the Church hurts because of it. Some have said that immigration law is one of the most difficult areas of law to practice. Perhaps the difficulty lies not in adhering to new changes that are promulgated almost daily, but in adhering to the Truth by confessing, “I am a Christian,” suffering joyfully in hope, and thereby supporting immigrants along the journey to obtain eternal citizenship in the City of God.
Note from Katie Patrick, executive director of Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska: Catholic Social Services is grateful for the year of service that Naomi spent with us. We wish her luck in her new position at the Emmaus Institute for Biblical Studies in Lincoln.
