As families across New York gather around tables laden with turkey, sides, and pie, our thoughts turn to that iconic feast of 1621 — the first Thanksgiving.
In the Catholic imagination, this moment transcends mere historical anecdote; it embodies the Gospel’s call for hospitality, gratitude, and communion amid hardship.
The Pilgrims, themselves refugees fleeing religious persecution, found survival not in isolation but through the generosity of the Wampanoag people, who shared their knowledge, resources, and land. It was an encounter between strangers that birthed a fragile alliance, reminding us that God’s words often unfold through acts of welcome.
Yet, in this season of thanksgiving, we cannot ignore the shadows cast over our national table. As Catholics in New York state, we are called to reflect on the recent voices of our shepherds — the New York state Catholic bishops and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) — who have spoken with prophetic urgency on immigration. Their messages, rooted in Scripture and the Church’s social teaching, challenge us to see the migrant not as a threat but as someone in need. “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me,” it says in Matthew.
The state bishops have long emphasized the dual imperative of immigration: prosperous nations like ours are “obliged, to the extent they are able,” to welcome those seeking security and livelihood, while, at the same time, public authorities may impose “juridical conditions” for the common good. This is no call for unchecked borders but for a system that honors human dignity.
Through initiatives like the Cabrini Pledge, which invokes St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, patroness of migrants, the New York Catholic bishops invite us to commit our prayers and actions to the “welcome, protection, promotion, and integration” of newcomers. In a state that has been a gateway for generations of immigrants, from Ellis Island to today’s asylum seekers in New York City, this pledge is a practical echo of the spirit of the first Thanksgiving: extending a hand to those arriving in vulnerability.
Last week, the USCCB amplified this call with a rare “Special Message,” their first in 12 years, approved overwhelmingly during their plenary assembly in Baltimore. They issued the message amid a “climate of fear and anxiety” surrounding immigration enforcement. The bishops lament the vilification of immigrants, the arbitrary loss of legal status, and threats to the sanctity of churches, hospitals, and schools.
They rejected the “indiscriminate mass deportation” and “dehumanizing rhetoric,” while affirming nations’ right to regulate borders justly. “Human dignity and national security are not in conflict,” they declare, urging safe legal pathways to combat trafficking and exploitation.
As we cite the first Thanksgiving, these episcopal interventions could not be more timely. The Pilgrims were not conquerors but sojourners, dependent on the indigenous welcome that sustained them through a harsh winter. Similarly, today’s migrants — fleeing violence, poverty, or persecution — bring gifts to our society.
The bishops’ words challenge the false dichotomies of our polarized discourse: we need not choose between compassion and order. Just as the Wampanoag and Pilgrims navigated tensions for mutual survival, so too can we reform our broken immigration system by expanding visas, protecting families, and addressing the root causes abroad, without forsaking security.
This Thanksgiving, let us heed our bishops’ call by signing the Cabrini Pledge, advocating for policies that uphold dignity, and in your family prayer, remember the migrant: “When one member suffers, all suffer,” Scripture says.
In the hope that it does not disappoint, let us build a table where everyone is invited.