Each year around St. Patrick’s Day, parishes across the United States fill with green vestments and prayers of gratitude for the witness of St. Patrick, a missionary who crossed borders, carried faith across cultures and helped shape the church we know today.

It is a joyful feast. But it is also, if we allow it to be, a mirror.

As the proud daughter of Irish immigrants, I grew up with stories of sacrifice, resilience and hope. Like so many who came before them, my parents arrived seeking opportunity, safety and the freedom to build a life rooted in dignity. They were welcomed by a church that spoke their language. It nourished their faith and helped them find community in a new land.

The Irish immigrant experience is now woven into the fabric of American Catholicism. Yet we would do well to remember that Irish immigrants were not always welcomed. They faced suspicion and open hostility. Newspapers mocked them, and powerful voices insisted they did not belong. Yet they carried on, held steady by faith and by the quiet certainty that they, too, belonged to the American story.

Today’s immigrants walk a similarly difficult road.

Across the United States, families seeking refuge or opportunity face even greater challenges. Policies shift rapidly. Access to legal representation is scarce and sometimes impossible to obtain. Many of our immigrant brothers and sisters live with deep uncertainty. Even those with legal status now know just how fragile it can be, and many families include members with different immigration statuses. In this climate, parents wonder whether they will be able to remain with their children, work to support their families, contribute to their communities and worship freely without fear.

At the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), we see these realities every day. We accompany mothers seeking asylum and fathers trying to keep their families together. And we stand with young people who have grown up in this country and long to fully belong. These men, women and children are not strangers. They are our neighbors and our fellow parishioners. They are members of the body of Christ.

Catholic social teaching is clear: Every person possesses inherent dignity. We are called to welcome the stranger, protect the vulnerable and uphold the unity of family life. These are not abstract ideals; they are Gospel values that demand our attention and our action.

St. Patrick understood what it meant to cross borders in both body and spirit. Kidnapped as a young man and taken far from his home, he later returned to Ireland as a missionary. His life was marked by displacement, yet he responded not with fear or resentment but with courage and faith. He carried Christ with him across cultures and into unfamiliar lands.

In one of the most beloved prayers attributed to St. Patrick, he asks for the grace to see Christ everywhere: “Christ with me…. Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me.” This vision reminds us that we must recognize Christ in those we might otherwise overlook, including the immigrant seeking opportunity or simply the chance to live without fear.

We cannot celebrate the legacy of immigrant saints and ancestors while remaining silent about the struggles of immigrants today. The Catholic story in the United States is very much an immigrant story, embodied by figures like John Neumann, a Czech immigrant who ministered to newly arrived communities, and Frances Xavier Cabrini, who devoted her life to accompanying Italian newcomers. Among Irish immigrants, we remember Father Edward Flanagan, the founder of Boys Town, who was dedicated to impoverished and abandoned children, and Mother Frances Warde, who founded the Sisters of Mercy in the United States. 

To honor the past authentically, we must respond to the present faithfully.

This is a moment that calls for moral clarity and compassionate action. As Catholics, we are invited to deepen our understanding of the realities facing immigrant families and to speak with both charity and conviction. We are called to support organizations that provide legal assistance and accompaniment. We are called to advocate for policies that respect human dignity and due process. And we are called to ensure that our parishes remain places of welcome, encounter and belonging.

St. Patrick’s Day is more than a cultural celebration. It is an opportunity to recommit ourselves to the values that have long defined our faith and our immigrant church. The same courage and hope that carried generations of immigrants before us are alive today in the families who journey among us.

This year, as we wear green and give thanks for the witness of St. Patrick, let us also ask how we are called to respond. Let us honor our heritage by standing with today’s immigrants in their time of need. Let us carry forward a faith that, like Patrick’s, crosses borders, builds bridges and proclaims the dignity of every human person. Most importantly, let us remember that we all belong to one another. 

Anna Gallagher is the executive director of Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc.