ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends in Christ,

In union with the whole Church, together with our brothers and sisters in all different countries, we celebrate today the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. As we do this we reflect on the great dignity of Saint Joseph as a worker, a just man, an honest laborer. At the same time we realize what a great gift work is in itself. All people throughout the world are called to the dignity of work. This is true in our Archdiocese, in our country and everywhere.

We know that the Church established this feast of Saint Joseph the Worker precisely to set up a model of honest, patient, and humble work. At the same time, she wanted to praise the contribution made by the workers of the world. It is through work that all of us fulfill God's will and contribute to His plan.

We know that in so many places on earth people have great difficulty in finding work. They have difficulty in finding working conditions that are in accord with their human dignity. Millions of people crave to find the conditions that will enable them to sustain and support their families in decency and honor and in frugality of life. Millions of people from their poverty dream about the possibility of finding a new life in the United States of America.

Some of the people who were successful in their longing were our parents, our grandparents or our great-grandparents. For generations the United States has welcomed immigrants from poverty, persecution and many other difficult situations. It has offered them relief and opportunity, freedom and justice. Above all it has recognized and sustained their human dignity and given them the opportunity to enjoy the blessings of God, to provide for their family, and to transmit these blessings to us who are all, except for native American Indians, either immigrants or descendants of immigrants. This land of the United States, this nation made all of this possible for immigrant people, and in turn immigrant people built up the United States of America. Without them there would not exist this one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.

Today on this feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, who labored diligently to provide for his wife, our Blessed Mother, and for her Son, Jesus, on this feast of Saint Joseph, who for a time had to emigrate to Egypt to protect his family from the threats of King Herod, we think of the needs of so many brothers and sisters in different countries of the world. We know that their life is difficult, that poverty often suffocates them , and that they long for the opportunities given to our ancestors and now to us. Many of them crave justice and religious freedom. All of them are seeking the realization of their human dignity.

This feast of Saint Joseph the Worker calls us to reflect on the national vocation of our own country as a receptive land, the blessings of which are still to be shared with others.

In the question of immigration there are many issues involved, many problems to be solved with justice, equity and fraternal love.

We know that our nation needs immigration reform, but immigration reform that is comprehensive and that gives us an immigration policy that is just, humane and compassionate. This week, in the Catholic Standard & Times, I will devote my column to the topic "Welcoming the Stranger, Welcoming Christ," and I will reflect further on what this means for us.

Today, during this Eucharist that brings us together in the love of Christ, we are asked to be mindful as a nation of our challenge to generosity. Because of the many blessings we have received we are called to accept the appeal for mercy from those in need.

Motivated by true charity, we can together create an immigration system that reflects our national values and our Christian convictions, promotes our national security and is worthy of our great nation. As a nation enriched by an immigrant culture, the United States must always defend the dignity of every human being in our land. Today, as the United States Senate continues to discuss reforms in our broken immigration system we must recognize especially the dignity of all those who labor and contribute to the fabric of our country.

Through the intercession of Saint Joseph we pray that our legislators will enact laws that protect the rights of both immigrants and American-born workers. We hope that our nation will remain a welcoming place for all those in need, a place where, through honest work, all people will be able to live in peace and share the good things of God's generous creation. And we pray that the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, that "mighty woman with a torch," whose name is "Mother of Exiles" will always be able to say: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...."

Dear Friends: The vocation of the United States of America to welcome other needy people has not come to an abrupt end. For us Catholics it is forever linked to our response to the words of Jesus: "For I was...a stranger and you welcomed me" (Mt 25:35). May Saint Joseph the Worker help us accept generously the challenges of a real comprehensive immigration reform that will benefit our citizens and our future citizens for years to come. And all this for the glory of God. Amen.