‘Can I buy a chocolate bar?’

After buses from Texas began arriving in Chicago in August 2022, the first migrant who came through our doors at Catholic Charities’ St. Gall office was a young man who had walked from downtown Chicago to 55th Street and Kedzie Avenue.

Staff at another nonprofit agency told him that we could help him, and we did. We provided him shelter for three days until we could figure out a more permanent solution. I took him grocery shopping; we bought some food for sandwiches and other items.

When we got to the checkout aisle, he looked at me and said, “Can I buy a chocolate bar? I just want to be able to have a chocolate bar, sit down and just look at the sky.” That was it, nothing more, so I bought him three chocolate bars.

I realized something was happening in our city, and we needed to establish a support system to help others like this young man. Our conversations at Catholic Charities began and, soon, many others like this young man arrived.

As immigrants continued to arrive, the city and Archdiocese of Chicago responded. Catholic Charities was on call 24/7. Beyond food, shelter and clothing, we realized these new arrivals also needed guidance. They needed someone to listen to them, to speak with them, to accompany them.

I couldn’t do it alone, and neither could Catholic Charities. It took a coordinated response, with support and leadership from the City of Chicago, from Catholic Charities, the archdiocese, our parishes and partners.

Since August 2022, approximately 47,000 migrants have arrived in the Chicago region. In collaboration with parish, government and community partners, Catholic Charities has supported more than 35,000 of them, including by connecting them with safe, long-term housing and reuniting them with families outside of
Chicago.

Five hundred people have received accompaniment through the Parish-Family Sponsorship Program. This program was designed by this great network of organizations and people who responded to the call for service, walking with these families, crying with them, praying with them.

The accompaniment done through this program is like a trinity. The top part is the family we walk with. We look at their needs and try to establish them in a home.

The second part is that the parish listens to them, walks with them and teaches them how to take the bus, how to register their kids for school and how to receive immunizations.

The third part is the cohesiveness that takes place among the parish, the family and Catholic Charities. It is a never-ending process.

We never really step away because the family knows they can always come to us or the parish. The strength of that relationship is incredibly important, and at the same time, the family becomes an integral part of who we are as Catholic Charities and who that parish family becomes. 

This work is relationship building, and it’s the face of Christ. It’s seeing the other person as you would want to be seen. That is what parish-family sponsorship is: It connects with that new arrival, sees and accepts them for who they are, and welcomes them into a family providing support and love. 

All of us give and receive through this welcome and through this work.

When that young man asked for a chocolate bar, he was really asking to be heard. The primary aspect of our faith is respecting every individual for who they are, and understanding that when they walk through the door, they are really seen, not simply looked at.