Migration week to highlight contributions of, programs for immigrants

Published: 2004-12-28

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The contributions of immigrants to the United States and the work being done to assist them at all levels of the church will be highlighted in a weeklong observance in January. In Houston, for example, an outreach program aims to help refugees and immigrants work through some of the more subtle changes in their new lives in the United States. Any refugee resettlement program includes help in obtaining and keeping jobs and English classes when necessary. But Stephen Carattini, director of immigration and refugee services for the Diocese of Galveston-Houston, said a local program goes further with its efforts to help immigrants keep their marriages and families together. In other parts of the country, outreach is as simple as collections of household goods for arriving refugees and as complicated as parish-run medical clinics or diocese-sponsored legal aid networks. "Today's world continues to be a harsh one for the more than 35 million refugees and displaced persons," said a letter from Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., chairman of the bishops' migration committee, in a kit of materials sent to parishes and dioceses for National Migration Week, Jan. 2-8.

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