By The Tablet Staff
MANHATTAN — At the Center for Migration Studies annual gala at Battery Gardens restaurant in lower Manhattan on Oct. 17, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio received a Lifetime Service Award for his work in defense of migrants and newcomers.
A letter from Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, congratulated Bishop DiMarzio on behalf of Pope Francis. The letter was read before the bishop’s award was presented.
“Being honored by the Center for Migration Studies is a nice honor,” Bishop DiMarzio said. “I have worked with them practically for the 50 years I have been a priest. I knew the founders; we worked with them, so it is a nice honor. I have been working on the board now for many years. It is a nice thing to have happened.”
Bishop DiMarzio has served as chairman of the Migration Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; chairman of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network; and U.S. representative to the Global Commission on International Migration, a United Nations-sponsored group. He’s also a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People and is chairman of the Migration Policy Institute.
The Center for Migration Studies, or CMS, was celebrating its 55th year of promoting understanding between immigrants and receiving communities. The organization — which was founded in 1964 by the Missionaries of St. Charles, Scalabrinians — has priests, women religious and laypeople who serve immigrants and refugees.
In addition to Bishop DiMarzio, other honorees included the following:
- Alexander Aleinikoff, director of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility, who received the Excellence in International Migration Scholarship Award
- Vicky Virgin, research associate, Poverty Research Unit of the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity
- Robert Warren, senior visiting fellow at CMS
- Carmen Maquilon, director of Catholic Charities Immigrant Services of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, who received the Humanitarian Service Award
- Dariusz “Darek” Knapik, owner of Victoria Consulting Services, who received the Immigrant Achievement Award.