The hundreds of participants joining a procession for the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees on Sept. 28, 2025 that wound for several blocks along 16th Street in Washington, D.C., were asked not to carry any protest signs. Some wore brightly colored T-shirts with the words, “I Stand with Migrants,” and “I Walk with Refugees.”
“This is a prayerful procession and not a protest,” said Maeve Gilheney-Gallagher, the Global Solidarity Coordinator in the Office of Missions of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. “Today we remember and honor migrants who have traveled to the United States to better their lives and the lives of their families.”
The procession, organized in a partnership between the archdiocese and Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, drew people of different ages and backgrounds, including families with small children, teens and young adults, middle-aged couples and senior citizens, walking behind a banner that read “Migrants, Missionaries of Hope.”
The day’s theme reflected the hope that migrants bring to their communities, their nations and to the world, and many marchers carried symbolic orange and black Monarch butterflies, harkening to the journey that those migrating insects make flying from North America to Mexico.
Before the procession started from the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, Capuchin Franciscan Father Emilio Biosca Agüero, the pastor there, noted that the parish celebrates Masses each weekend in five languages – English, Spanish, Vietnamese, French Haitian Creole and Portuguese – serving the Washington residents and the waves of immigrants from Central America, Vietnam, Haiti and Brazil who have found a church home there over the years.
“Like any big family, you have to make space,” he said, noting how welcoming immigrants is part of the history and heritage of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart.
Offering an opening prayer was Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar, who migrated to the United States from El Salvador in 1990, was ordained to the priesthood in 2004 and became the first Salvadoran bishop to serve in this country in 2023.
“Today as we walk together in this reflection procession in the heart of the nation’s capital, we carry in our hearts the stories, the hopes and the struggles of immigrants and refugees throughout the world,” Bishop Menjivar said.
He noted how Pope Francis spoke out in support of migrants and refugees and warned against a globalization of indifference toward their plight, and instead urged people to adopt a culture of encounter and accompaniment for those in need, and how, building on that vision, Pope Leo XIV has emphasized the need for a culture of reconciliation to bring healing and to foster understanding and forgiveness in a polarized and divided world.
“We come together to pray… This is our mission today, to walk together, not as strangers, but as members of one human family,” the bishop said.
Bishop Menjivar noted they would be walking on behalf of undocumented immigrants who were not joining the march because they are living in fear at a time when the federal government is carrying out a mass deportation policy.
“Let us be their voices, their advocates and their companions on the journey,” he said.
During the procession, Charlene Howard, the executive director of Pax Christi USA, a Catholic organization that promotes peace, recited a passage from Jeremiah 29, when the prophet said God would offer migrants and refugees in all the nations “a future of hope.”
In an interview as she walked down 16th Street with the other participants, Howard said, “It is important to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who have come here for a better life… (and) for them to know we’re with them.”
Among those offering a reflection during the procession was Jesuit Father Matt Ippel, who after being ordained to the priesthood in June returned to South Sudan, to serve in refugee camps where he had previously worked from 2018 to 2021. He worked with Jesuit Refugee Service in that country, where people have lived for more than 10 years in refugee camps, including children and young adults who have lived most of their lives there.
He shared stories of hope, of one refugee who walks an hour each way to school every day, and of another refugee who runs a small tailoring business, and of a woman who lost her NGO job and now teaches language and catechism classes to children in the camps.
“It’s important we’re coming together to do this as people of faith,” he said as he walked along, noting that lifting up the dignity of migrants and refugees is crucial at a time when some popular narratives wrongly present them “as criminal and as less than.”
The Jesuit priest – who is now studying for a master’s degree at Georgetown University and is working with Jesuit Refugee Service/USA – noted how as needs for refugees around the world continue to increase, aid organizations have had to scale back their outreach due to severe funding cuts, including the United States dismantling its USAID program.
“It’s important to shed light on this very dehumanizing and devastating” situation, he said.
Those walking in the procession included Dr. Peter K. Kilpatrick, the president of The Catholic University of America, and several CUA students.
As the procession began, Ciara Gallagher – a Catholic University student from the Chicago area who is majoring in history – helped lead the singing of the song, “Somos El Cuerpo De Cristo/We Are the Body of Christ.”
“It’s easy as a college student to just get stuff in the bubble of our community at college and just focus on ourselves,” she said, adding, “It’s important especially as Catholics to go outside ourselves and to be a prayerful presence for immigrants and refugees and for the D.C. community… to show it (what immigrants are facing now) is not just a political issue, but a human issue.”
Also joining the march was Goodness Odagbodo, a biochemistry major at Catholic University who immigrated to the United States when he was 4 years old, and now is a citizen of this country.
Joining the procession with fellow students that day “is really important, because as members of the body of Christ, we’re called to love everyone,” he said.
Odagbodo, the president of the Migrants Rights Coalition at CUA, noted that the university encourages its students “to lead with light, and this is a great way for us to do so.”
Another member of that CUA group, Raphaela Smaldone, is a senior from Frederick County, Maryland, majoring in Spanish for international service and in philosophy.
She said advocating for better treatment for immigrants in the United States and at the southern border is a critical issue now, and immigration reform is urgently needed.
“The approach has to change. People trying to migrate here are not being treated like human beings. It’s heartbreaking and incredibly wrong,” she said.
That point was echoed by fellow CUA student Danelys Dilone, a senior majoring in biochemistry from Niagara Falls, New York, who said she regarded some recent government actions against immigrants, including ICE raids, as “just inhumane.”
Walking together in the prayer procession, she said, is “making our support for our immigrant brothers and sisters known and calling for action from our government and fellow citizens.”
Aurora Sanchez, who is majoring in biology at Catholic University, noted how she was born in Arizona but has family roots in Mexico. Her family has a strong devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. “She embodies and is a symbol of welcoming all,” she said.
Taking part in the procession was important for her, she said, because “it’s a march that represents my culture and my people, and (is my way) of just showing up for immigrants around the world.” The CUA student said she was moved by “the amount of people here today and seeing it’s all types of cultures” represented.
As she walked in the prayer procession with her fellow students and other community members, Sanchez reflected on the nation’s undocumented immigrants, “those who can’t come out.”
“I hope more people come to realize immigrants make a big difference in our country,” she said.
