Pastoral Migratoria: An Immigrant-led Ministry of Service, Justice and Accompaniment Actions

Contributors: Mark Goebel, Assistant Director of Development & Partnerships, and Michael Warrell, Marketing Design Support

Every day in the United States, workers in all sectors, especially manufacturing and services, are denied basic rights. Immigrants are particularly vulnerable because of educational, language and legal status barriers. Workers lose US$7.3 million weekly in Cook County, Illinois, alone, from illegal or stolen pay.¹ Immigrant workers often are isolated, even in their own communities, and are left to defend themselves from unfair work and pay, discrimination and harassment, violence and unsafe work environments. They often face retaliation from employers for organizing to improve working conditions. In their fear and desperation, the immigrant community often turns first to the local Catholic parish to find basic social and pastoral resources. Currently, the United States has over 4,000 Hispanic parishes, many seriously under-resourced to adequately meet the pastoral and social needs of immigrants facing unjust policies, deportations and other immigration issues.

Moreover, there has been an explosive growth of ethnic populations particularly in the Hispanic community and a rapid decline in the number of priests and religious able to provide pastoral leadership and support. This situation could reach a crisis point by 2030 when the number of Hispanics in the United States is expected to double to over 80 million (70 percent Catholic), eventually reaching 106 million Hispanics by 2050.² These trends were among the factors that led the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to mandate making lay leadership formation in Hispanic parishes a strategic priority. The United States has 195 dioceses and 44.7 million foreign-born people, 24.5 percent of them undocumented.³ The Archdiocese of Chicago in northeast Illinois is the third-largest U.S. diocese with 336 parishes, serving 2.2 million Catholics out of a population of 6 million residents in Cook and Lake County (1,400 square miles/3,626 km).⁴ One hundred thirty parishes in this diocese have Hispanic congregations and offer Masses in Spanish;⁵ the average attendance is approximately 400 people.⁶ The Archdiocese of Chicago is the first U.S. diocese to provide a parish-based response to this issue through the development of an immigrant-led ministry serving the Hispanic and Polish faith communities (e.g., Pastoral Migratoria, Polish Immigrant-to-Immigrant Ministry). Pastoral Migratoria, which was created in 2008, invites immigrants to respond to their baptismal call to be engaged in service, justice and accompaniment actions in their parish communities. It is rooted in a methodology of Aparecida,⁷ whose main architect was Pope Francis when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. This document challenges the faithful ver, juzgar, actuar (to see, judge, act) or escuchar, aprender, proclamar (to listen, learn, proclaim) as they reflect on their experience and current reality in the light of the Gospel and shape responses to enhance the life of their immigrant community. Pastoral Migratoria represents an institutional and organizational way for the Church to empower immigrants as pastoral agents at the parish level.

To prepare immigrant parishioners for this work, Pastoral Migratoria leads them through a six-week formation program (e.g., Scripture, Catholic Social Teaching, leadership skills). After receiving a certificate and a Bible signed by the local bishop during a commissioning Mass, Pastoral Migratoria leaders identify and prioritize the needs of their local communities and devise concrete responses to the most pressing needs while working in collaboration with various labor rights groups, community and health-care organizations and partner institutions including Catholic Charities, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, National Immigrant Justice Center and the Consulate General of Mexico in Chicago. Pastoral Migratoria also works in collaboration with networks of 200 priests (Priests for Justice for Immigrants), 59 religious orders (Sisters and Brothers of Immigrants), immigration parish coordinators (IPCs) in 127 native-born parishes, and many of the local universities and professional and governmental organizations.

Since Pastoral Migratoria was established, over 250 Hispanic lay leaders from 40 Hispanic parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago are connecting their faith and lives by responding to their community's challenges. Pastoral Migratoria has worked with partner organizations to develop more than 600 workshops on immigration, financial literacy, health and education, and has provided critical information and resources on rapid response, anti-fraud action, deportation, peace circles, mental health and other issues touching immigrant lives. Pastoral Migratoria is able to distribute 50,000 materials per weekend. Nearly 6,000 immigrants received documentation through collaboration with the Consulate General of Mexico in Chicago. Pastoral Migratoria leaders accompanied 1,000 families to direct service support and took leadership in organizing 250,000 petitions for elected officials and 59 congressional visits. One important area is labor issues. Pastoral Migratoria leaders have collaborated with labor rights groups like Arise Chicago and Latino Union to develop over 100 workshops and distribute thousands of educational materials in Spanish and English on the living wage, health-care benefits, labor laws and labor rights. The resources include a 200-page worker rights manual in Spanish and Polish.

In 2015, a Pastoral Migratoria leader at the Santa Maria del Popolo parish northwest of Chicago was contacted by a worker at a nearby meat-packing plant, where immigrant workers, many undocumented, were experiencing a major labor issue. In the middle of a union contract dispute and despite then-President Obama's promise to focus deportations on people posing real threats, Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers raided the plant and demanded that the company turn over information on employees. The company obliged, which resulted in dozens of workers being fired or resigning, and at least eight arrests. The workers, panicked and fearful, felt vulnerable because of their legal status and needed a safe, large, neutral and private space to meet with their union representatives. They wanted to negotiate a contract that would support general labor issues like fair wages, but also demanded that the company protect employees from authorities seeking to deport immigrants (their top priority). Pastoral Migratoria talked to the pastor and secured the church's basement for the meetings between the workers and union representatives. During the negotiations process that lasted over two years, leaders of this ministry assisted with the church logistics and provided a welcoming environment. Pastoral Migratoria facilitated the presence of a bishop from the Archdiocese of Chicago along with representatives of the Priests for Justice for Immigrants in some key meetings. After many ups and downs including a work stoppage by employees, a final contract that included a job protection plan for undocumented workers was approved. Santa Maria del Popolo was described as a "sanctuary" — a place sought in a time of trouble. This is one example of how Pastoral Migratoria accompanied workers.

Since 2017, Pastoral Migratoria has started its work at the national level in two dioceses — Stockton, California, and Kansas City-Saint Joseph, Missouri — which requested to pilot this ministry. In July of 2018, representatives from ten dioceses who were interested in starting this ministry attended the inaugural Instituto Pastoral Migratoria at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago to gain knowledge, build relationships and resources, and begin strategic planning. The dioceses included New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, San Bernardino (California), Saint Louis (Missouri), Kansas City (Kansas), Little Rock (Arkansas), Des Moines (Iowa) and pilot sites Stockton and Kansas City-Saint Joseph. Pastoral Migratoria is developing a national network (la Red de Pastoral Migratoria) that aims to engage dioceses across the United States in the accompaniment of the immigrant community by building community, sharing resources and providing a space to dialogue on how God is calling us to respond in a prophetic way to the needs of our immigrant brothers and sisters.

To strengthen its national impact, Pastoral Migratoria is addressing the great need for widespread systemic change in the policies, practices and attitudes in the United States and in the institutional Church, as local churches are coming to open their doors to immigrants taking leadership in pastoral and civic work on various immigration issues. It is also promoting greater integration of immigrant leaders in their parishes and in their communities. Pastoral Migratoria's longer-term goals are that the Church will have an institutionalized immigrant leadership infrastructure where leaders are actors of their own development to respond to community needs and strive for immigrant integration by working in collaboration with outside entities (e.g., governmental, community and educational institutions). Pastoral Migratoria expresses the missionary discipleship of the Church as immigrant leaders, who encounter Jesus within the reality they are facing, and share with others their faith through actions.

Vision/Mission

In 2005 we were established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as the Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform (CCIR) / Justice for Immigrants (JFI). In 2009 the Archdiocese of Chicago created the Office of Human Dignity and Solidarity — Immigration Ministry to continue working on the goals of CCIR/JFI to build awareness of the immigration issue in parishes and support immigration reform, while introducing a new vision that includes immigrant-to-immigrant ministry (e.g., Pastoral Migratoria and Polish Immigrant-to-Immigrant Ministry). Our mission is to engage the Catholic community in the mission of Jesus Christ to build communion between immigrants and non-immigrants and to welcome and promote immigrants in their formation and integration as full members of society and as people of faith in the one family of God.