Welcoming Christ in the Stranger: The Duty to Love and Care for Immigrant Children

The call to love and care for immigrants, especially children, finds its firm foundation in Sacred Scripture and the living tradition of the Church. In the Gospel of Matthew, Christ teaches, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Matthew 25:35), making it clear that the measure of our love for Him is our treatment of the most vulnerable. Throughout salvation history, God’s people have been migrants — from Abraham to the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt — and the Lord repeatedly commands, "You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Exodus 22:21). In immigrant children, we encounter Christ Himself in His most innocent and defenseless form, calling forth from us a response not merely of charity, but of justice rooted in our shared dignity as children of God.

The call to love and care for immigrants, especially children, finds its firm foundation in Sacred Scripture and the living tradition of the Church. In the Gospel of Matthew, Christ teaches, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Matthew 25:35), making it clear that the measure of our love for Him is our treatment of the most vulnerable. Throughout salvation history, God’s people have been migrants — from Abraham to the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt — and the Lord repeatedly commands, "You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Exodus 22:21). In immigrant children, we encounter Christ Himself in His most innocent and defenseless form, calling forth from us a response not merely of charity, but of justice rooted in our shared dignity as children of God.

Catholic Social Teaching consistently reaffirms this divine imperative. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "the more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin" (CCC 2241). Pope Francis, in Fratelli Tutti, reminds us that, "Every human being has the right to live with dignity and to develop integrally; this fundamental right cannot be denied by any country" (Fratelli Tutti, §107). Particularly with children, who bear the wounds of displacement with heightened vulnerability, the Church insists upon a preferential option: to shield, nurture, and empower them to grow into the fullness of life that God intends for every soul.

Ultimately, to love and care for immigrant children is to embody the Church’s mission of mercy, solidarity, and prophetic witness in an often divided world. It demands personal generosity, structural justice, and communal conversion. Pope Benedict XVI emphasized in Caritas in Veritate that the development of peoples must include a commitment to protect vulnerable populations, affirming that "the rights of migrants must be respected" (§62). When we welcome immigrant children with open arms and tender care, we participate in building the civilization of love proclaimed by St. John Paul II, allowing the light of Christ to radiate through our compassion. In doing so, we not only defend the dignity of the least among us but encounter anew the saving mercy of God, who dwells where love is poured out most freely.