WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- Pope Leo XIV sent a special message of support to an interfaith immigration policy summit hosted by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, also known as CLINIC, Oct. 29.
The Oct. 29-30 summit, which brings together faith leaders, legal practitioners, advocates, and scholars from Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish faith traditions, sought to find areas of commonality in their work serving immigrant communities.
Pope Leo thanked CLINIC for its work, "together with that of the many people, families, civic bodies and church communities who strive to uphold the dignity of migrants and refugees."
"Too often, these most vulnerable members of society are caught in situations which strip them of their human rights -- an injustice that cries out to heaven," he said. "It is my hope, therefore, that this summit will encourage the participants to stir the hearts and minds of their fellow citizens to overcome that indifference and detachment which reduces the human person to a statistic."
Pope Leo said he would pray the meeting "will help find new ways to awaken consciences to our shared moral duty for these brothers and sisters of ours, who, as Sacred Scripture and the saints untiringly remind us, are Christ visiting us in disguise.”
Anna Gallagher, executive director of CLINC, said in remarks at the summit that Pope Leo's message was "a meaningful charge for the beginning of an interfaith gathering."
"We are here to learn from one another, to strengthen our work, and to consider how we can help our communities see more clearly and respond more faithfully," she said.
The summit came shortly after a divided panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia allowed a lawsuit against the federal government from a coalition of more than two dozen religious organizations to proceed. The group is challenging a Trump administration policy that rescinded long-standing restrictions on arrests at sensitive locations, also including schools and hospitals, with exceptions for public safety or national security threats.
The gathering also took place shortly after the Archdiocese of St. Louis filed a lawsuit against the federal government over a policy it said prohibits priests from distributing holy Communion to and hearing confessions of Catholics detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A joint report from the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Migration and Refugee Services, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and World Relief estimated that more than 10 million Christians living in the U.S. would be vulnerable to deportation under Trump administration policies implemented in 2025, and 61% were Catholic.
It also found more than 1 in 6 Catholics are either vulnerable to deportation themselves or could see a family member deported, barring law or policy changes.
"The Holy Father's message asks us to resist the indifference that reduces a person to a statistic," Gallagher said.
"Those of us who work in communications, law, ministry, or advocacy know how easily that reduction happens," she added.
