By The prayer service invites Catholics to reflect on the nation’s history through the lens of migration, displacement, slavery, and faith while encouraging advocacy for vulnerable migrant populations.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has released a national prayer service for the country’s upcoming 250th anniversary that places immigration, justice, and the dignity of migrants at the center of America’s semiquincentennial observance.
Titled “A National Prayer Service Honoring the Many Journeys that Shaped America,” the resource was developed by the Committee on Migration and the Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation.
Designed as a template for dioceses and parishes across the country, the prayer service invites Catholics to reflect on the nation’s history through the lens of migration, displacement, slavery, and faith while encouraging advocacy for vulnerable migrant populations.
“In observance of the United States’ 250th anniversary in 2026, and rooted in the Church’s pastoral mission of welcome, accompaniment, and solidarity,” the instructions state, the service seeks “to acknowledge and honor the many diverse communities that have journeyed to the United States in search of hope, safety, and opportunity.”
The document also highlights “the voices, sufferings, and enduring contributions of those who were forcibly brought to this land.”
A prayer service rooted in hospitality
The proposed service combines hymns, Scripture readings, intercessory prayers, testimonies, and guided reflections focused heavily on migrants, refugees, victims of trafficking, and immigrant communities.
Organizers are encouraged to adapt the service to local needs and cultures by incorporating music and devotional practices that reflect “the lived experiences of migration, displacement, resilience, and faith.”
The service opens with the hymn “All Are Welcome” by Marty Haugen and includes prayers asking Catholics to “walk in deeper solidarity with immigrant communities” and to advocate for “greater protection, justice, and accompaniment for vulnerable and at-risk migrant populations.”
A prayer to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini — patroness of immigrants and herself an immigrant to the United States — asks for protection for migrant families separated from one another and for the grace to “welcome every stranger as Christ in our midst.”
The document also includes a “call to action” encouraging Catholics to reflect on “concrete and compassionate ways to welcome, protect, promote, and integrate migrants, immigrants, and refugees” while advocating for “just and humane immigration reform that upholds the dignity of every human person created in the image of God.”
The service concludes with a “Prayer for Migrants” asking God to help the Church “welcome, protect, promote, and integrate those who knock at our doors.”
Scripture and civil rights themes woven throughout
The Scripture passages selected for the service strongly emphasize hospitality toward foreigners and care for society’s most vulnerable.
A reading from Deuteronomy 10:12-22 exhorts believers: “So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.” The Gospel reading from Matthew 25:31-46 centers on Christ’s words, “I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me.”
The template also incorporates themes of racial justice and historical memory. Intercessions address slavery and modern human trafficking, praying both for victims of exploitation and for “perpetrators of slavery” to repent.
The service further recommends “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often referred to as the Black national anthem and rooted in Black church worship and civic life in the U.S., as an intermediate hymn.
It also includes optional excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech for use in a homily or guided reflection, alongside passages from the bishops’ 2025 special pastoral message on immigration.
Dignity of migrants
In recent years, U.S. bishops have consistently advocated for immigration reform while emphasizing the dignity of migrants, opposition to family separation, and support for refugees and trafficking victims.
The prayer service places those concerns within the broader context of the nation’s identity ahead of America’s 250th anniversary observances.
“This prayer service seeks to provide a sacred space for reflection, remembrance, lament, and hope,” the document states, inviting participants to encounter one another “as members of the one human family and the one body of Christ.”
EWTN News reached out to the USCCB for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
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How clownishly Marxist and predictable.
U.S. should follow the example of what the Pope’s Vatican does, not what he says:
Vatican Promises Stiff Penalties for Illegal Aliens Crossing its Border
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/01/16/vatican-promises-stiff-penalties-for-illegal-aliens-crossing-its-border/
Unfortunately, many bishops are endangering us, our families and our children.
They protect people whose first moral act in the U.S. is to disregard and violate our laws by entering illegally; then lowering wages for Americans, crowding schools, overtaxing health systems (notice how much longer it takes now to get an appointment with your doctor), raising rents and housing costs, WITH 50% OF ILLEGAL ALIEN FAMILIES ON WELFARE, far higher than the average for non illegals (see below), not to mention the STEALING OF BILLIOS of taxpayer dollars as in Minnesota and california (see information below),
or “non-violent crimes” such as DWI, fraud, theft, identity theft, drug trafficking, child pornography possession, and some forms of human trafficking and child molestation
or the horrible crimes, such as:
“THE OFFICE OF THE TENNESSEE DISTRICT ATTORNEYS GENERAL CONFERENCE HAS RELEASED ITS ANNUAL STATE IMMIGRATION REPORT REVEALING THAT IN 2025, ILLEGAL MIGRANTS COMMITTED 2,183 VIOLENT OFFENSES, INCLUDING 41 HOMICIDES, 145 SEXUAL OFFENSES, 11 CHILD RAPES, AND MORE.” Tennessee Releases Staggering Stats on Migrant Crime
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/02/02/tennessee-releases-staggering-stats-migrant-crime/
ICE Arrests Illegal Alien Accused of Raping 5-Year-Old Girl in Long Island, New York
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/03/25/ice-arrests-illegal-alien-child-rape-long-island/
Taxpayers Footed Housing Costs and Tuberculosis for Illegal Alien Accused of Murdering Sheridan Gorman in Sanctuary City Chicago. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials say Medina-Medina was apprehended crossing the southern border on May 9, 2023, but was released into the U.S. interior under former President Joe Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas’s expansive catch and release policy. ICE officials have confirmed that Medina-Medina was first apprehended at the southern border on May 9, 2023, and that, as a result of the Biden administration’s expansive catch and release policy, he was released from Border Patrol custody into the United States interior, where he made his way to Chicago. A month later, in June 2023, Medina-Medina was arrested in Chicago for shoplifting, but ICE was not contacted about his arrest, thanks to the city and state’s sanctuary policies, and therefore, he was not turned over to federal agents to face deportation.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/03/25/report-taxpayers-footed-housing-costs-for-illegal-alien-accused-of-murdering-sheridan-gorman/
An illegal alien accused of raping and murdering 13-year-old Oscar Hernandez last year in the sanctuary state of California has been hit with additional child rape charges involving two other teen boys.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/02/12/sanctuary-california-illegal-alien-hit-with-more-child-rape-charges-after-allegedly-murdering-boy/
414 Illegal Alien Child Sex Offenders Arrested in Houston During President Trump’s First Year
ICE: 414 Illegal Alien Child Sex Offenders Arrested in Houston
LEXINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56) — The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a plea for authorities to keep a Lexington inmate in custody on Wednesday, April 1. Jorge Luis Martinez Ulloa, 31, was arrested on March 28 following the reported kidnapping, rape, and strangulation of a minor. He faces kidnapping of a minor, first-degree strangulation, two counts of first-degree rape of a victim under 12, two counts of first-degree sodomy of a victim under 12, and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a victim under 12 charges. This child predator should have NEVER been in our country, but illegally entered our nation 4 TIMES under the Obama and Biden administrations,” DHS wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
https://fox56news.com/news/local/lexington/homeland-security-pleads-to-keep-sick-monster-accused-of-lexington-kidnapping-rape-in-custody/
Illegal Alien Arrested for Sexually Assaulting 14-Year-Old Girl in Swank Utah Ski Town
24-year-old arrested, accused of sexually assaulting Park City High School student
Nearly Half of Immigrant Households in U.S. Are on Welfare
Analysis: Nearly Half of Immigrant Households in U.S. Are on Welfare
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/03/19/analysis-nearly-half-of-immigrant-households-in-u-s-are-on-welfare/
An illegal alien, released into the United States by the Democrat administration, is now charged with murdering 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman, a freshman at Loyal University in the sanctuary city of Chicago, Illinois.
Five Biden Illegals Wanted for Homicide in Their Home Countries Arrested by ICE Boston
https://x.com/EROBoston/status/2041492701984551040
ICE Agents Find Illegal Alien Wanted for Murdering Woman in Mexico Hiding Out in Arizona
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/04/08/exclusive-ice-agents-find-illegal-alien-fugitive-hiding-out-in-arizona-after-allegedly-murdering-woman-in-mexico/
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says the horrific murder of a woman who was bludgeoned to death at a Fort Myers gas station on April 3 was totally preventable, pointing to the fact that the suspect is a Haitian national in the U.S. illegally who benefited from former President Joe Biden’s open border policies.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/04/08/florida-attorney-general-james-uthmeier-another-horrific-illegal-alien-murder-this-was-preventable/
An 18-year-old illegal alien student at Fairfax County High School in Virginia has been convicted on nine counts of groping girls in the hallways. On Friday, Israel Flores Ortiz, an illegal alien from El Salvador who crossed the United States-Mexico border in 2024 and was released into the United States by the Democrat administration, was convicted after he groped girls at the high school.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/04/10/illegal-alien-convicted-nine-counts-groping-girls-virginia-high-school/
ICE Arrests Illegal Alien Killers, Child Predators, Sexual Abusers on Anniversary of Victims Unit for Angel Families
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/04/10/exclusive-ice-arrests-illegal-alien-killers-child-predators-sexual-abusers-anniversary-victims-unit-angel-families/
ICE Arrests Trio of Criminal Illegal Aliens Convicted of Child Sex Crimes in Minnesota in One Day
Release Date: April 16, 2026
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/04/16/ice-arrests-trio-criminal-illegal-aliens-convicted-child-sex-crimes-minnesota-one
Officials in New York City are reportedly refusing to hand over an illegal alien accused in a deadly arson attack that killed four, including a 3-year-old boy. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News the city is refusing to hand over 38-year-old Mexican national Roman Ceron Amatitla to immigration officials, the outlet reported Thursday.
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/04/17/report-nyc-refuses-ice-detainer-illegal-alien-charged-arson-killed-4-including-3-yr-old/
JD Vance Exposes $15 Million in Medicaid Theft by Single Migrant in Maine
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/05/15/jd-vance-exposes-15-million-in-medicaid-theft-by-single-migrant-in-maine/
Decmocrat-Released Illegal Alien Accused of Repeatedly Raping 12-Year-Old Girl in Florida
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/05/18/biden-released-illegal-alien-accused-repeatedly-raping-12-year-old-girl/
Democrat-Released Illegal Alien Gets 50 Years in Prison for Producing Child Porn of His Special Needs Niece, Nephew
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/05/21/illegal-alien-gets-50-years-in-prison-for-producing-child-pornography-of-special-needs-niece-nephew/
Illegal Alien Accused of Shooting at Random Homes, Firefighters, Vehicles Across Austin, Texas
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/05/25/illegal-alien-accused-of-shooting-at-random-homes-firefighters-vehicles-across-austin/
ICE Arrests Illegal Alien Killers, Pedophiles in NJ as Dems Fight to Close Detention Center
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/05/26/ice-arrests-illegal-alien-killers-pedophiles-drug-traffickers-new-jersey-as-democrats-fight-close-migrant-detention-center/
• Two Minnesota Somali women indicted for $21 million Medicaid fraud
• https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/05/27/two-minnesota-residents-arrested-21-million-medicaid-fraud-scheme
Illegal Migrant from India Sentenced for Child Sex-Trafficking in Nebraska
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/05/29/illegal-migrant-india-sentenced-child-sex-trafficking-nebraska/
An illegal alien, with prior arrests for other crimes, is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a parking garage stairwell in Arlington, Virginia.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/05/29/illegal-alien-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-woman-in-stairwell-in-virginia/
Add these to the partial list above since yesterday, for which the US bishops are responsible because they protect these people coming in illegally, violating our laws as their first demonstration of acceptable behavior in a country they want to live in regardless of the rights of the citizens. The illegals have no concern for the rights of others, for the rights of their neighbors. They just do what they think is good for themselves without regard for others.
• Two Minnesota Somali women indicted for $21 million Medicaid fraud
• https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/05/27/two-minnesota-residents-arrested-21-million-medicaid-fraud-scheme
Illegal Migrant from India Sentenced for Child Sex-Trafficking in Nebraska
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/05/29/illegal-migrant-india-sentenced-child-sex-trafficking-nebraska/
An illegal alien, with prior arrests for other crimes, is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a parking garage stairwell in Arlington, Virginia.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/05/29/illegal-alien-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-woman-in-stairwell-in-virginia/
ICE Urges California’s Gavin Newsom to Drop Sanctuary Policy After Illegal Alien Allegedly Murders Infant, His Mother, and His Grandmother
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/06/01/exclusive-ice-urges-californias-gavin-newsom-drop-sanctuary-policy-after-illegal-alien-allegedly-murders-infant-mother-grandmother/
llegal Alien Gets Two Years in Prison for Gun Charges After Serving as Des Moines, Iowa, School Superintendent
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/06/01/illegal-alien-gets-two-years-prison-gun-charges-after-serving-as-des-moines-iowa-school-superintendent/
Stop the lying by calling them “migrants.” They are people who entered our country illegally and the first thing they did when crossing our border was to break the law. Bishops should stop lying. Lying is a sin.
Stop the lying by calling them “migrants.” They are people who entered our country illegally and the first thing they did when crossing our border was to break the law. Bishops should stop lying. Lying is a sin..
This is more disgusting than I could have imagined. I consider it an affront to all Americans and a terrible way to politicize the Mass. I normally attend daily Mass but I will be certain not to participate in any Mass that has these components. I am also not interested in hearing about slavery for this anniversary. This “prayer service” as described is offensive beyond belief.
As someone who had ancestors who fought in the American Revolution and were shot during the war, I am absolutely offended by the Church’s injection of immigration and slavery into what should be a celebration of the nation’s founding.
The church needs to stop trying to justify lawbreaking by illegals. NO ONE IS ENTITLED TO ENTER THE UNITED STATES. Yet another fail on Pope Leo. A double fail, since he is supposedly American. Disgusting.
“A double fail, since he is supposedly American.”
As he has accepted an ecclesial office that makes him the head of state of a foreign nation, he should renounce his citizenship and if he fails to do so, it would be revoked.
In truth, he expatriated decades ago. Many religious end up in foreign lands, but when they set down roots in those places, then they should be honest about it and become citizens of their new land.
You should definitely continue to receive the Eucharist regularly. Consider praying, “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love”.
I think this is wonderful and greatly needed in this time of such greed, deceit, and hate. Pope Leo is doing an amazing job! God Bless him and God Bless America!!
What time didn’t show greed, deceit and hate?
“Greed, deceit and hate”: how aptly you’ve described liberals.
Inasmuch as…
The US Declaration of Independence mentions “God” in its first sentence, and “our Creator” in its second.
Its final paragraph appeals to the “Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of [our] intentions,” seeks the common good of its people, and asserts its “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.”
In less than 1350 words (4-5 typed pages), words representing God appear 4-5 times.
Inasmuch as the USCCB recognizes ‘migrants,’ to the detriment and exclusion of all American Catholics (most of whom are NOT migrants nor have they ever been migrants) the USCCB does not represent Catholics. They ought not use the ‘Catholic’ name.
Unrelated response:
In another thread (I can’t remember, so if you answered, sorry) you asked if I still read FT and you referred me to an article there. I can’t find your post, but if you could post that reference here, would appreciate it. Bookmarking this to find it.
I used to, but determined there was too much the air of an effete echo chamber. Could see the content b
One thing I miss the occasional esoteric world by poster Michael Paterson Seymour in his periodic homages to Elizabeth Anscombe. He used a word to describe a form of civil involvement in the appointment of religious clerics/prelates. Try as I might to find it, the only thing I get it “Caesaropapism” and I don’t think that is it.
As we are all immigrants and were once foreigners our land, I think this is an appropriate way to “celebrate ” our country’s birthday.
Celebrating immigrants & all who came together to form this nation is appropriate. But this doesn’t sound like a celebration to me.
“As we are all immigrants”
In the words of the fictitious Colonel Sherman Potter: Horse Puckey.
I am a third generation native born. My great grandparents (I knew two of the eight, my grandmother’s parents) were immigrants. They came here with the intent to become Americans of a specific heritage and to be self-sufficient, not to strip-mine the country’s resources and become professional dependents and client agitators.
When my great grandmother was a really old woman living with my grandmother, her room contained remarkably little for a woman who left “the old country” to join her husband in a little coal mining town and raised seven of her twelve children to adulthood. One son was headed to Normandy 82 years ago, the other was exploring the beaches of the South Pacific including Tarawa-where he was the only survivor of his unit- and his lovely parting gift from the Marine Corps was Hiroshima clean-up-something his daughter paid for by not having a first birthday anniversary.
They arrived here legally, and my great-grandmother waited to join my great-grandfather until he was steadily employed and had sufficient money to pay for her passage-and decent man that he was-it wasn’t steerage. He also helped build a now-decommissioned Church that he, my great grandmother and a great aunt and her husband attended until it closed. It is now used as some sort of art studio by some Orthodox monks-not the ideal-but at least it won’t be desecrated like the former St. Ann’s in Buffalo, New York.
Her room had a chest of drawers, and a footlocker type chest. Her framed citizenship was on the wall, and her son’s military portraits on her chest. She also kept old municipal tax returns from prior to her naturalization-because she valued her participation in “carrying civic burdens”.
Compare this with people coming here illegally, immediately getting on welfare and demanding acquiescence to their illegal entry and their ways, engaging in criminal activity, and then with help from unconscionably irresponsible commercial interests, engaging occupations such as trucking where they not only don’t drive responsibly, they cannot. Why not give them the locomotive throttle and pilot’s yoke while we’re at it?
We are no longer able to absorb people who have no road to fiscal independence or no desire for assimilation and as graduate educated and licensed financial professional, I don’t want any lectures on prudent use of the public treasury from the very people who lead their Dioceses into bankruptcy (which rather than being viewed as an orderly resolution, should be viewed as a scandal) and endless church closures.
Enough already.
Thank you and God bless you Pitchfork. The bishops lie when they call the illegals “migrants.” The bishops purposely lie about the distinction between someone who goes to an American consulate in a foreign country and applies for a visa and someone who decides that he can do what he thinks is good for him regardless of others and enters the country violating its laws. True asylum seekers used to go to an American embassy to ask for refuge. These here are not asylum seekers. They too are illegals. The bishops are endangering us, our families and our children.