Follow Me ‘When it’s tough, Jesus asks us to love anyway’ By Bishop Terry R. LaValley

October 8, 2025

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
Jesus calls you and me to love and care for every human being, especially the most vulnerable: the hungry, the imprisoned, the homeless, the ill, the pre-born and the elderly, and the stranger. It seems pretty simple on paper, but it’s a difficult call to live. For instance, there might be times when a person is imprisoned because of something she or he did to hurt us personally or a loved one. There are times when the stranger is so different from us that we struggle to empathize with her or him. Even when it’s tough, such as an unplanned pregnancy, or maybe especially when it’s tough, Jesus asks us to love anyway.

This weekend marks Respect Life Sunday and World Day of Migrants and Refugees. Even when it seems so difficult, we want to respect the dignity of all human life, especially the most vulnerable! This Jubilee Year of Hope, we reflect on the hope that causes people to leave their homes and way of life to seek freedom and happiness elsewhere, to seek safer lives for themselves and their families.

Today’s migrants may come from different places than our ancestors, but like our own ancestors, they come to the United States because they hear the song of promise. They hear songs of freedom and security. The journey of today’s migrants is not unlike our own. We are pilgrims seeking freedom from sin and eternal happiness as we follow Christ on the journey to be with Him in heaven.

Our world and our nation have been mired in unsuccessful efforts to create migration policies that are just to those who call the United States “home” and those who wish to call this land “home.” The Catholic Bishops of Mexico and the United States released the Pastoral Letter, Strangers No Longer, on January 22, 2023. The bishops offered five principles to guide Catholics when considering migration issues:
1. Persons have a right to find opportunities in their homeland.
2. Persons have the right to migrate to support themselves and their families.
3. Sovereign nations have the right to control their borders.
4. Refugees and asylum seekers should be afforded protection.
5. The human dignity and human rights of undocumented migrants should be respected.

Each of these principles can be a topic for prayer, extensive discussion and debate. If a person cannot find opportunities in their homeland, what is our moral duty and response as an individual, nation and as Church to foster opportunity in their foreign homeland? Should they choose to migrate elsewhere what is our duty and our response?

What will we do for the least of our sisters and brothers? What will I do for them when discussions turn to border and migration policies? When we speak of laws and policies, it is easy to label a group and apply the rules. It is difficult to think of the individual person.

This Respect Life month, Pope Leo XIV encourages us to pray the Rosary each day, seeking the intercession of Our Lady, Queen of Peace. We yearn for civility and peace in our fractured and terror-stricken land. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me! Faithfully yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Terry R. LaValley
Bishop of Ogdensburg