And You Welcomed Me: Migration and Catholic Social Teaching

Edited by Don Kerwin and Jill Marie Gerschutz

Published in October 2009 by Lexington Books, a division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
$26.95 • Paperback • 0-7391-4100-7 | 978-0-7391-4100-7

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This book describes the distinctive way in which Catholic social teaching looks at migrants. It analyzes migration from the legal, social science, and cultural perspectives, and gives special consideration to the lived experience of immigrants themselves and their host communities. The book identifies gaps and opportunities to improve government and non-governmental responses to migration on a local, national, and international level. And You Welcomed Me aims to reframe perspectives on migration by focusing on the human beings at the heart of this phenomenon. It analyzes trade, immigration, labor, national security, and integration policies in light of the core Catholic commitment to the common good, human dignity, authentic development, and solidarity.

"I am very taken by this beautiful volume as a whole, embedded in the American reality and at the same time faithful to the Catholic social doctrine and to the immigrants themselves. Migrants 'are Christ asking us to find room for Him, exactly as He did at the first Christmas.' (Dorothy Day)

Several of the expressions from this book resonated very powerfully with me. They are rays of light from our Catholic tradition. 'Migration is not a crime. The crime is that which causes migration.' 'The universal common good extends the duty to safeguard [migrants'] rights across borders.' 'Human rights should be protected by the rule of law.' 'Migrants are the face of globalization.' 'The future of the Church in the United States and the wellbeing of the Nation itself increasingly depends on the leadership and participation of new immigrants.'"

~ Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

Introduction by Rev. Gasper Lo Biondo, S.J. and Rev. Richard Ryscavage, S.J.;

Chapter 1. Crossing the Divide: Foundations of a Theology of Migration by Rev. Daniel G. Groody, C.S.C.

Chapter 2. International Migration: Social, Economic, and Humanitarian Considerations by Mary DeLorey

Chapter 3. But the Laborers are Many? Catholic Social Teaching on Business, Labor and Migration by John J. Hoeffner and Michele R. Pistone

Chapter 4. Rights, the Common Good, and Human Dignity in Service to the Human Person by Donald Kerwin

Chapter 5. Integration Yesterday and Today: New Challenges for the United States and for the Church by Jill Marie Gerschutz with Lois Ann Lorentzen

Chapter 6. Christian Hospitality and Solidarity with the Stranger by Rev. William O'Neill, S.J.

Resources & more information on And You Welcomed Me

Please click here for a free download of Reflection Questions and Additional Exercises, a companion piece to And You Welcomed Me. Designed to deepen the reader's understanding of the themes found in the book, this resource contains a series of questions and exercises related to each chapter of the book as well as select passages from Scripture.

Please click here for an mp3 audio file of Jill Marie Gerschutz's talk on "Discerning Right Relationships: Migration and Catholic Social Teaching" which she gave on July 13, 2010, as part of Archdiocese of Washington's "Theology on Tap" series.

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