Top photo caption: Pope Leo XIV hugs a child at the “Las Raíces” migrant center in San Cristobal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, June 12, 2026, where he is meeting migrants and humanitarian organizations. Pope Leo delivered a message to the participants at an interfaith immigration policy summit hosted by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, also known as CLINIC, Oct. 29. OSV News photo/Yara Nardi, Reuters
By Kate Scanlon, OSV News
WASHINGTON OSV News – Pope Leo XIV sent a special message of support to an interfaith immigration policy summit hosted by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, also known as CLINIC, Oct. 29.
The Oct. 29-30 summit, which brings together faith leaders, legal practitioners, advocates, and scholars from Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish faith traditions, sought to find areas of commonality in their work serving immigrant communities.
Pope Leo thanked CLINIC for its work, “together with that of the many people, families, civic bodies and church communities who strive to uphold the dignity of migrants and refugees.”
“Too often, these most vulnerable members of society are caught in situations which strip them of their human rights – an injustice that cries out to heaven,” he said. “It is my hope, therefore, that this summit will encourage the participants to stir the hearts and minds of their fellow citizens to overcome that indifference and detachment which reduces the human person to a statistic.”
Pope Leo said he would pray the meeting “will help find new ways to awaken consciences to our shared moral duty for these brothers and sisters of ours, who, as Sacred Scripture and the saints untiringly remind us, are Christ visiting us in disguise.”
Anna Gallagher, executive director of CLINC, said in remarks at the summit that Pope Leo’s message was “a meaningful charge for the beginning of an interfaith gathering.”
“We are here to learn from one another, to strengthen our work, and to consider how we can help our communities see more clearly and respond more faithfully,” she said.
The summit came shortly after a divided panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia allowed a lawsuit against the federal government from a coalition of more than two dozen religious organizations to proceed. The group is challenging a Trump administration policy that rescinded long-standing restrictions on arrests at sensitive locations, also including schools and hospitals, with exceptions for public safety or national security threats.
The gathering also took place shortly after the Archdiocese of St. Louis filed a lawsuit against the federal government over a policy it said prohibits priests from distributing holy Communion to and hearing confessions of Catholics detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A joint report from the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and World Relief estimated that more than 10 million Christians living in the U.S. would be vulnerable to deportation under Trump administration policies implemented in 2025, and 61% were Catholic.
It also found more than 1 in 6 Catholics are either vulnerable to deportation themselves or could see a family member deported, barring law or policy changes.
“The Holy Father’s message asks us to resist the indifference that reduces a person to a statistic,” Gallagher said.
“Those of us who work in communications, law, ministry, or advocacy know how easily that reduction happens,” she added.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
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Civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, dead at 96, remembered for her faith, defense of human dignity
Top photo caption: Dolores Huerta, the renowned American labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers union alongside Cesar Chavez, poses for a portrait outside the Dolores Huerta Foundation headquarters in Bakersfield, Calif., Sept. 19, 2024. Huerta, a Catholic, who helped improve the lives of laborers in farming and other industries died Oct. 28, 2026, from cancer. She was 96. OSV News photo/Mike Blake, Reuters
By Gina Christian, OSV News
OSV News – Catholics are remembering civil rights leader Dolores Huerta as a woman whose faith inspired her lifelong mission of service.
“In her life, she was a courageous and heroic defender of human dignity, and a woman of faith who inspired generations of young Hispanic leaders, especially women,” said Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles in an Oct. 29 statement published by that archdiocese’s news outlet, Angelus. “We entrust her to the tender mercies of Our Lady of Guadalupe and pray that God console her family and grant her peace.”
Huerta died Oct. 28 at age 96, following a decades-long career of advocacy for farmworkers, migrants, the economically marginalized and women.
Her passing was announced by the Dolores Huerta Foundation, of which she was founder and president.
In its statement, the foundation said Huerta “always reminded us of a fundamental truth that shapes everything we do: history is not written by the wealthy and seemingly powerful, but rather by everyday people who recognize their own power and take collective action to make changes in their lives, their communities, and the world.”
She had an “ability to make every single person feel seen, valued, and essential,” said the foundation.
Born in 1930 in northern New Mexico and largely raised in California, Huerta demonstrated a passion for social justice early in life, following the example of her mother’s community activism.
After creating the Agricultural Workers Association, she teamed up with fellow activist César Chávez in 1962 to launch what is now the United Farm Workers of America. The organization mobilized agricultural workers, along with faith and civic leaders, to peacefully demand fair wages, safe conditions and other essential rights for farm laborers.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles, remembered working with Huerta while he was a bishop in the dioceses of Fresno and Stockton, and during his time leading the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
“I join countless people throughout California and our nation in mourning the passing of Dolores Huerta, a woman of extraordinary courage, determination, and faith in the dignity of every human person,” Cardinal Mahony said in a statement published by the Angelus.
The cardinal added that Huerta’s legacy “extends far beyond the labor movement.”
He said Huerta “gave hope to generations of working families and reminded our society that true justice requires listening to those whose voices are often overlooked.”
Cardinal Mahony described Huerta’s mission as “a testament to the conviction that every worker is entitled to dignity, respect, and a fair opportunity to provide for family and future.”
Later in her career, Huerta – who was the recipient of multiple awards and honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom – focused on the rights of women and immigrants.
After an investigation published by The New York Times in March revealed Chávez’s alleged sexual abuse of several women and girls, Huerta released a statement saying she had been sexually assaulted twice by Chávez as a young mother in the 1960s, with both encounters resulting in pregnancies. She had kept the pregnancies – and the attacks – secret, placing the children she bore with stable families, she said.
“I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here,” said the 95-year-old Huerta, who gave The New York Times permission to reprint her statement, issued in English and Spanish.
Huerta remained active up until the time of her death, traveling to the Vatican’s Borgo Laudato Si’ for a Sept. 1 Mass for the Care of Creation, said Father Manuel Dorantes, executive director of the Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education at the Vatican, in an Oct. 28 X post.
At the liturgy, she met Pope Leo XIV, said Father Dorantes, who lauded Huerta’s “extraordinary commitment to human dignity, justice, and the rights of farmworkers.”
Father Dorantes said Huerta’s life “reminds us that caring for our common home means standing alongside one another, defending the vulnerable, and recognizing the dignity of every person.”
“May her legacy continue to inspire us to build a more just, compassionate, and hopeful world reminding us that the cry of the earth is the cry of the poor,” he said.
Invoking the rallying cry for which Huerta became known, he added, “¡Sí, se puede!” (“Yes, we can!”)
“Together, we can make a difference,” said Father Dorantes.
Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina. The Angelus, the news outlet of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, contributed to this report.
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