On Friday, Pope Leo XIV issued a statement on the theme "Migrants, missionaries of hope."

The church remembers Christ’s death on a cross in a spiritual and sacramental way during Holy Week, but some people actually experience the Passion in a tangible and personal way in their very lives.

To stop the important work of refugee resettlement is to lose part of the church’s identity in the United States.

The U.S.C.C.B. said it would not renew its cooperative agreements with the federal government related to children’s services and refugee support after its longstanding partnerships with the government in those areas became “untenable.”

In 2016, the Zaheda flew to Italy from Lesbos on the pope’s plane. “He’s a gift from paradise,” Hasan Zaheda said on Sunday. “Pope Francis, a gift from our God, that God sent us to save us.”

The Trump administration “immediately terminated” its contract with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for refugee resettlement, effective Feb. 27, according to letters issued by the U.S. State Department a day earlier.