Dear Editor: The engagement of the Church on behalf of “the right of every person to migrate” (Archbishop Bernardito, Feb. 11) is eloquent and inspiring. The long history of this engagement may be less well known to our readers.

I’m researching the history of religious agencies’ role in refugee relief during the Cold War, and one of the precious resources for the topic is the Center for Migration Studies in Manhattan, whose archives contain the records of Catholic Relief Services (CRS). CRS sponsored hundreds of thousands of immigrants to the U.S. during the 29 years (1947-76) when its executive director was a native of Brooklyn named Msgr. Edward Swanstrom.

For a decade the director of CRS in western Europe was a layman from New Jersey (and daily communicant, later participant in Vatican II) named James Norris. These Americans enjoyed the steadfast support of Pope Pius XII, and at his death dubbed him “the Pope of the migrants” for his 1952 apostolic constitution Exsul Familia Nazarathena (the Exiled Family of Nazareth) that reaffirmed Church support for immigrants.

JIM NIESSEN

Woodside

Editor’s Note: James P. Niessen, Ph.D. is a World History Librarian at Alexander Library, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.