In November 2025, at a time of critical immigration uncertainty in the United States, the U.S. Catholic Bishops issued a strong statement in defense of the human dignity of all people. They launched You Are Not Alone, an initiative aimed at assuring prayerful solidarity and practical support for immigrants. Echoing Pope Leo XIV's stance, they declared:
Our Catholic faith teaches that every person is made in the image of God and deserves respect, dignity, and care. While people have the right to build a future in their homeland, they also have the right to migrate when life at home becomes unsafe or unsustainable.
In response to the growing fear and instability caused by increased immigration enforcement and the threat of mass deportations, the Catholic Church has launched the You Are Not Alone initiative to assure migrants and their families that the Church stands with them, offering pastoral support and accompaniment during this difficult time.
You Are Not Alone concentrates on actions, practical efforts that every individual Catholic and parish can undertake and support.
Through Justice for Immigrants, a consortium of organizations that have supported the USCCB's immigration efforts since 2004, the You Are Not Alone initiative offers resources and advocates for practical action in three key areas:
Emergency and Family Support
Immigrants and their families need your help. Whether it is educating communities on their legal rights, responding to enforcement actions taking place in your community, or providing support after enforcement has occurred, these resources provide guidance on how you can engage immigrants in need of your support.
Accompaniment and Pastoral Care
It is important to support clergy, lay leaders, and parish communities in providing pastoral care and accompaniment to immigrants — whether ministering to those detained and their families navigating the immigration system or walking with farmworkers through practical, pastoral, and spiritual support that upholds their God-given dignity.
Solidarity through Public Prayer and Witness
As threats of family separation, detention, and deportation rise, people of faith across the country are coming together to publicly stand with migrant and refugee communities. The Missionaries of Hope Toolkit and related Rosary resources equip individuals, parishes, and dioceses with everything they need to organize prayerful, public witness rooted in Catholic teaching.
Spreading the message, growing the network of care
One of the key aspects of You Are Not Alone is making sure the message and the support are visible at every level of the Church's activity. On April 10, Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria, Texas, issued a personal video appeal to immigrants and to all people of good will.
What does answering the call look like on a parish level? A March 30 National Catholic Reporter story featured St. Ignatius in San Francisco, a Jesuit parish that has been sponsoring three immigrant families for five years. "There's no way that I can read the papers without the lens of these three families," Pastor Fr. Greg Bonfiglio, SJ, told NCR's Camillo Barone. "They make all that's happening with the U.S. immigration system right now personal."
Bonfiglio said the Jesuit parish's involvement grew out of earlier engagement with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. The parish's support includes housing assistance, community integration and spiritual life. The children were baptized in the parish and attend Catholic schools, and the families participate regularly in parish activities.
Now, however, the families' chances of moving toward legal status have all but vanished, as immigration courts are being shut down. Fr. Bonfiglio has been honest with them that despite the parish's designation of sanctuary (a choice made for religious, not political reasons), there is little St. Ignatius can do other than advocate for the families not to be returned to the violence of their homelands.
"It was important in San Francisco and in the local church to make a public statement. I don't think the sanctuary status really protects us from anything at this point. The sanctuary status helps us declare to be clear for ourselves who we are as a Catholic Christian community, that we will do our best to welcome the stranger as the Gospel commands us to do," he said.
Get involved
The bishops' initiative means that individuals don't need to wait for a formal plan to be developed at a parish, school or diocesan level in order to get involved. A good start is checking whether such efforts exist, though. (You can share about local initiatives in the comments.)
You Are Not Alone has an information sheet. There is also the Cabrini Pledge, named for the immigrant saint Mother Frances Cabrini, and receive updates on efforts across the country.
Pope Leo has spoken repeatedly about immigration, even specifically about immigration in the Untied States. In his apostolic exhortation Dilexi te, he said: "The Church, like a mother, accompanies those who are walking. Where the world sees threats, she sees children; where walls are built, she builds bridges. She knows that her proclamation of the Gospel is credible only when it is translated into gestures of closeness and welcome. And she knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community."
