Fairfield University Jesuit and immigration issues expert available to discuss The Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform | Press Releases

Media Advisory

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, working with a national network of 20 Catholic organizations, will launch a formal national campaign for immigration reform, including a call for broad legalization, tomorrow morning.

"The new Campaign will surely bring the bishops and the Catholic organizations into conflict with both conservative and liberal members of Congress," said Rev. Richard Ryscavage, S.J., a former head for eight years of the Migration and Refugee Services office of the Bishops Conference, which is leading the campaign. Fr. Ryscavage is available to speak with reporters about the project.

"Justice for Immigrants: The Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform" will address "legalization of the undocumented; expanded opportunities for legal entry for work and family reunification, establishment of an appropriate and effective temporary workers program; and re-establishment of due process rights and other legal safeguards," according to a media advisory released by the group.

"Protecting immigrants is an old tradition in the Catholic Church. Catholic social teaching explicitly supports the human rights of undocumented aliens outside their home countries," said Fr. Ryscavage who has also served on the U.S. delegation to the governing body of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees for three years. "Balancing the public policy demands of the common good with the right to migrate has been a recurring theme in Catholic thought."

Fr. Ryscavage is a visiting professor at Fairfield University and is also a former national director for Jesuit Refugee Service USA. JRS is an international Catholic organization whose mission is to accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugees and forcibly displaced people.

"This is not the first time the Catholic bishops and the Catholic service organizations have taken a strong pro-immigrant public policy position," Fr. Ryscavage said. "During the 1980's the U.S. Congress offered legal status to undocumented immigrants. The Church vigorously supported this amnesty and under contract with the federal government, helped to register for the program hundreds of thousands of immigrants."

Fr. Ryscavage is helping to coordinate a conference on migration at Fairfield University with The Association of American Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU), the Social and International Ministries Office of the United States Jesuit Conference and Jesuit Refugee Service. "Migration Studies & Jesuit Identity: Forging a Path Forward," will take place from Thursday, June 9, through Saturday, June 11, at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn., with a registration and welcoming on Wednesday, June 8. The conference will feature a speaker from the Bishops Conference who will speak about the Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform.

"The Catholic Church has been one of the few large public institutions in the United States consistently willing to stand up for the human rights of undocumented people, no matter what their nationality," Fr. Ryscavage said. "For the Church all persons must be treated with dignity and fairness no matter what their legal status is. To say someone is Ôillegal' does not mean they have no rights."

In addition to his work with JRS in Washington, D.C., which provides services to refugees in more than 40 countries, Fr. Ryscavage also worked as the U.S. national secretary for Jesuit Social and International Ministries and as the president of the Jesuit Missions. He also taught and researched for the Oxford University Refugee Studies Center at Campion hall, Oxford's Jesuit college.

Fr. Ryscavage earned his bachelor's degree in Foreign Affairs at Assumption College and went on to get a Master's degree in Political Philosophy from Boston College and a Master of International Administration from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vt. Fr. Ryscavage received his Master of Divinity from the Weston School of Theology and was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1977. In that same year he earned a Master in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

"The Church and many Catholic service groups have extensive daily contact with undocumented aliens," Fr. Ryscavage said. "They witness the constant struggle with poverty, family separation and workplace exploitation. So it is natural that they speak to the policy makers from that pastoral experience."

Contact: Fr. Richard Ryscavage, S.J., (203) 254-4000, ext. 3393