Sunday, March 1, 2026: Station of the Cross: Jesus willingly accepts and patiently bears his cross.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you did not fight or flee as you were forced to take up an unbearably heavy cross after torture and abandonment by many of those you loved. Today, many of our immigrant brothers and sisters must endure exhausting, long legal cases to seek safety after already experiencing horrific violence and abuse. We pray for a more merciful system, and for strength for them as they wait.

Immigrant story from one person from the African country of Cameroon:

John is a Cameroonian man who believes in equality and dignity for all people in his country. In October 2018, he joined a peaceful protest calling for equal rights for English-speaking Cameroonians. During the protest, government forces opened fire, and one of John’s friends was killed right in front of him. John was arrested and taken into government custody. 

He was held in an overcrowded detention center for days without food, water, medical care, or a place to sleep. While detained, he was repeatedly beaten and tortured by guards, including being struck with weapons and kicked. He left detention with serious injuries that required medical treatment and took weeks to recover. After his release, he went into hiding, confined to a small room for months. While in hiding, he was kidnapped by armed groups, tortured again, and held for ransom until his family paid for his release.

With no safe place left in his country, John fled and sought asylum in the United States under the previous Trump administration. Today, he continues to wait for his asylum case to be decided, carrying the physical and psychological effects of what he has endured.

- John is a pro bono client of a Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) 

Catholic Identity and Social Teaching

The task of welcoming immigrants, refugees and displaced persons into full participation in the Church and society with equal rights and duties continues the biblical understanding of the justice of God reaching out to all peoples and rectifying the situation of the poor, the orphans, the widows, the disadvantaged, and especially in the Old Testament, the alien and the stranger.

Together a New People: Pastoral Statement on Migrants and Refugees.

National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1986

About Our Identity

CLINIC’s Catholic identity infuses every aspect of its work—how it is governed, who it serves, how it treats its clients, the way it works, and why it does the work that it does.