SAN DIEGO — Catholic Charities will partner with parishes across the San Diego Diocese to provide emergency funds to help vulnerable families to meet their basic needs amid sweeping Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions.
The collaboration, called the Matthew 25 Campaign, is the Local Church’s response to help immigrants and refugees shattered by ICE raids, detentions and deportations. These actions leave families struggling to survive, explained the chief executive officer of Catholic Charities, “Vino” Pajanor.
“These are families with young kids, mothers with babies,” he said in an interview, adding that they have been contacting the parishes and Catholic Charities itself pleading for help.
He explained how the campaign works: Parishes will be able to raise funds to help these families through a special online donation portal. Catholic Charities will match parish contributions up to $100,000.
Bishop Michael Pham asked parishes to launch this fundraising campaign on the weekend of Oct. 4 and 5, the Jubilee of Migrants. The jubilee is part of the Jubilee Year celebrations observed by the Catholic Church worldwide.
“The Church has always stood with migrants. Since the Holy Family fled into Egypt, the Church has been a migrant Church,” the bishop wrote to parishes. “This is a non-partisan issue, but one rooted in our faith and history. May this Jubilee remind us of our Christian faith and tradition.”
Vulnerable migrant families, meanwhile, will be able to go to their parish and ask for emergency funds to pay for food, rent, or for other necessities. Through the campaign, the parish will be able to provide the funds swiftly and then request a reimbursement from Catholic Charities.
Pajanor said the funds give families time to get their footing and are not meant to provide permanent support. “When you have lost the home’s breadwinner or are fearful and staying home, you need time and space to get out of the shock of what has happened.”
The campaign responds to a family’s crisis, without inquiring about their legal status, Pajanor said. He stressed that it “is about how we respond as Catholics.”
He referred to the parable of the Good Samaritan.
“(The Good Samaritan) did not know if that person lying on the road was a Gentile or a Jew or whoever he might be. He didn’t even know whether this person was good or bad.”
The Good Samaritan saw a human in crisis and used his own means to help him, he continued.
“So, if we are all followers of Christ, this is what we’re doing through our Matthew 25 Campaign.”
He concluded, “Jesus has asked us to be the Good Samaritan.”
