On Sunday, Sept. 27, Catholics around the world will join Pope Leo XIV in honoring the 2026 World Day of Migrants and Refugees. It is easy to let annual occurrences like this come and go without reflecting on their meaning and purpose. For this reason, I would like to invite you to rediscover this tradition and its urgent importance to the Archdiocese of Boston.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, 304 million people live outside their country of birth, the highest number in human history. More than 52 million of these migrants live here in the United States, which has the largest migrant population in the world. However, the World Day of Migrants and Refugees is not a reaction to this recent phenomenon or the political debates that surround it. More than 100 years ago, Pope Pius X recognized the unique situation of migrants in the modern world, and he began to advocate for better social and pastoral care. Every pope since has followed in his footsteps.

Although migration is a global phenomenon, it is also a local reality in the Boston area. There are 1.3 million immigrants in Massachusetts, and many come from countries with a significant Catholic presence. For this reason, today almost one third of the 247 parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston celebrate Mass in a language other than English, especially Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, and Vietnamese. Even in those parishes without Masses in other languages, immigrants are among the most active and faithful parishioners. They are often served by priests who are themselves immigrants.

Since immigration is part of our life in the Boston area, we should pay attention to what Pope Leo XIV has to say about it. This year, he chose to focus the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on the experience of children. Through no fault of their own, children are forced to leave their homes, separate from their families, face traumatic conditions, and suffer exploitation. To quote Pope Leo's message, "Their dignity is trampled upon in countless ways."

The pope responds to this tragedy by pointing to the example of Christ. When the disciples argued with one another about who was the greatest, Jesus placed a child in their midst and said: "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me" (Mk 9:37). When we welcome a child, we welcome Christ. This is a stark message for a world that so often seems to disregard the lives of the most vulnerable.

Pope Leo concludes that we as a Church -- every single Christian -- must take on the responsibility to welcome migrant children. He writes, "Before the concrete faces that confront us in daily life, the entire Christian community is called to regard these children as its own sons and daughters, and to engage with the concrete story of each one of them."

I propose that we take this text as an examination of conscience. On the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, we can look around our parishes and ask: where are the children of migrants? Do we know them by name? Have we welcomed them into the life of our community? Can we say they are our friends? If not, let's start today.



- Bishop Cristiano Barbosa is secretary for evangelization and discipleship and regional bishop of the Central Region of the Archdiocese of Boston.