“Share the Journey” campaign

As Caritas concluded the “Share the Journey” campaign in support of migrants, its leaders said much work remains to be done to change attitudes about immigration.

There’s a little bit of migrant in everyone, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines, said during a U.S. visit.

This year’s Rice Bowl program has taken on a special theme, following the two-year “Share the Journey” campaign kicked off by Pope Francis last September. As part of this ongoing effort of the universal church, Rice Bowl, too, is focusing on ways in which we share the journey of those in need, particularly migrants and refugees.

Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, told his fellow bishops Nov. 13 that more than 100 U.S. dioceses have participated in the “Share the Journey” campaign launched by Pope Francis Sept. 27.

Politics as service to the common good and the need to create spaces where citizens and migrants can meet and overcome fear were topics Pope Francis repeatedly returned to Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.

The U.S. Catholic bishops and other faith groups are objecting to reports that the Trump administration will limit the number of refugees the United States accepts to 45,000 for the upcoming fiscal year.

Pope Francis has approved specific “action points” or concrete proposals the Vatican wants to see incorporated into the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees which goes hand in hand with a much more personalized effort to encourage individual Catholics to meet a migrant or refugee and listen to that person’s story.