Cardinal Cupich: Advocacy for immigrants is an act of worship

Vatican News

Advocacy for immigrants belongs to every disciple of Jesus and is, “in its truest sense, an act of divine worship,” Cardinal Blase Cupich said in a homily at Old St. Patrick’s Church in Chicago on October 3.

In his homily, the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago urged Catholics to make their gathering both a celebration of the city’s heritage and a call to action.

Chicago, he said, is woven from the courageous journeys of people seeking a fresh start for their families, from earlier generations of immigrants and African American families who migrated north to more recent Latino and Asian communities.

Yet the spirit of welcome in the United States, he warned, has been “greatly diminished.”

Remembering the stranger

Cardinal Cupich recalled the concerns voiced by the US Bishops at their Baltimore meeting in November 2025.

“We spoke of the climate of fear and anxiety created by profiling and inhumane immigration enforcement, the vilification of immigrants, the hazardous conditions in detention centers, the lack of access to pastoral care, the abrupt and arbitrary loss of legal status, the threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools, and the separation of children from their parents,” he said.

The Bishops, he added, affirmed their solidarity with migrants, opposed indiscriminate mass deportation, and called for significant immigration reform.

Turning to the Scripture readings, the Cardinal reflected on Moses’ command: “Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

This requires more than tolerating outsiders out of pity, he explained. It asks believers to remember their own history of displacement and exclusion.

“We cannot pretend to worship God while remaining indifferent to the stranger,” he said, “because the God we worship is the God of justice who sets the displaced free.”

Encountering Christ at the margins

Drawing on the Letter to the Hebrews, Cardinal Cupich urged the faithful to seek Jesus “outside the gate”: in shelters, processing centers and neighborhoods where families are struggling to rebuild their lives.

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Reflecting on Matthew 25, he stressed Jesus’ identification with those who are neglected and vulnerable.

When parishes provide clothing, English classes, legal assistance, and food, he said, “we are not performing mere social work; we are encountering Christ, we are engaging in eucharistic discipleship.”

Recalling St. John Chrysostom’s teaching, he linked reverence for Christ at the altar with care for the stranger in the street.

A call to action

The Cardinal concluded by outlining concrete commitments: pressing legislators for significant, common-sense immigration reform; demanding humane law enforcement and accountability for human rights violations; seeking access to detainees whose religious liberty is threatened; and expanding charitable outreach.

Prayer in Church, he insisted, must remain attentive to the cries for justice outside and to immigrant families seeking safety, shelter and a future for their children.

Advocacy, he said, will involve calling on legislators to pass common-sense immigration reform, demanding accountability from law enforcement, gaining access to people in detainment centers whose religions liberty is threatened, and offering charitable outreach to everyone in need.

“Let our North Star always be the firm conviction that our advocacy for immigrants belongs to every single disciple of Jesus, and it is, in its truest sense, an act of divine worship.”