Welcoming the Stranger Committee
Our Welcoming the Stranger Committee is a subgroup of the Justice Ministry and has been integral in Saint Clement’s efforts to reach outside of our neighborhood and help welcome those who have come to Chicago seeking a new home.
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me” Matthew 25:35
Welcoming the Stranger is the immigration ministry at Saint Clement. Since our inception in 2021, we have accompanied asylum-seeking families from El Salvador and Honduras, and four Afghan families who were resettled in Chicago after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Our ministry works to provide basic needs as well as emotional and spiritual support for the families. The funds we raise go toward rent assistance, groceries, clothing, school supplies, and Ventra cards as well as other needs that may arise. Committee members visit with the families we are accompanying and offer help in navigating Chicago through with lessons in taking the bus and the El, enrolling children in CPS, assistance in learning English, and touring local parks and attractions. Our committee has worked with members of the Justice Ministry, Clement Moms, Men’s Communio, and Love Your Neighbor to best support these families.
Interested in learning more? Martina Ricca.
SUPPORT FOR MIGRANTS - help support the recent influx of migrants arriving to Chicago here!
Reflection from Colleen McHugh, Chair of the Welcoming the Stranger Committee
Colleen is the Chair of the Welcoming the Stranger Committee. She has been a member of the Creation Care Ministry and the Justice Ministry while here at Saint Clement, and she leads the majority of our efforts in communication with and providing items for the Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement Program.
“Let us see your face, Lord, and we shall be saved” Psalm 80:4
I have long loved being a member of the Saint Clement community, but it wasn’t until I began my work with our Welcoming the Stranger committee that I felt as though I saw the face of God firsthand in our parish. Over the past year and a half, I have seen it weekly in the most special family from El Salvador that we have accompanied on their journey. I see it in the father, Denis, who begins work early each day so he can take English classes in the evening. I see it in the mother, Jhoselin, who has become a close friend of mine and who has smiled her way through a difficult life riddled with obstacles. I see it in the faces of their two adolescent children, both of whom have adjusted to their new lives in Chicago in stride after leaving their whole world behind in an instant due to gang violence. And I see it in the face of their baby who was born in Chicago just nine days after the family was granted entry over the border in Texas.
I have seen the face of God in the faces of our committee members who have contributed so selflessly to support this family including the lawyer who is representing them in their case, the realtor who helped them find a safe apartment, and the former schoolteacher who has taken the children on field trips around the city. I have seen it in the parishioners who donated money to help with their rent and basic needs, the Clement moms who offered clothing and baby gear, and Father Peter who has supported our committee’s mission from day one. And I saw it on the faces of Father Matt and our committee members as the family’s young son was baptized at Saint Clement this past winter on the most special of days. I am so proud to be part of a parish like this one.
Reflection from Cynthia Noble, parishioner & participant in Welcoming the Stranger Ministry
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” In Matthew 25:35, Jesus clearly calls us to radical hospitality; to treat immigrants with dignity and to welcome them into our hearts. About a year and a half ago, I became engaged with the newly formed Welcoming the Stranger Ministry at Saint Clement. As the U.S. military quickly withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, our committee was miraculously poised to partner with you, our fellow parishioners, with Catholic Charities and the Archdiocese Immigration Ministry to welcome several Afghan individuals and families.
We soon learned of Naeeb, a 22-year-old man from Kabul, who had recently arrived in Chicago. Our committee helped with his basic needs and my husband Mark arranged an interview for him at his company’s distribution center, where Naeeb was hired. Mark has also taken him under his wing personally, inviting him to our home and showing him around town.
This is good news but it is not yet a fairy tale ending. Naeeb carries unspeakable trauma and also the everyday loneliness and longing for love that we all know at times. As Mark has poignantly remarked to me, welcoming the stranger is about more than addressing material needs; it is offering our presence, our steadfast love.
I am challenged and inspired by Jesus’ teaching, Mark’s discipleship and that of my friends on the committee, to truly embody radical hospitality. I admit that fear takes up more space in my heart that I would like. I am encouraged by the reminder to the Israelites in Exodus 23:9 that they should treat strangers well because they themselves were once the Other: “You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” In recognizing that we are each of us strangers--wandering and wondering throughout salvation history--may we overcome our fears, deepen our compassion and expand our capacity to love the strangers who have become our neighbors.