Catholic Standard Editor on the JRS/USA & ADW Co-Sponsored Procession for World Day of Migrants and Refugees in Washington, D.C.

The hundreds of participants joining a procession for the 111^th World Day of Migrants and Refugees on Sept. 28, 2025 that wound for several blocks along 16^th Street in Washington, D.C., were asked not to carry any protest signs. Some wore brightly colored T-shirts with the words, “I Stand with Migrants,” and “I Walk with Refugees.”

“This is a prayerful procession and not a protest,” said Maeve Gilheney-Gallagher, the Global Solidarity Coordinator in the Office of Missions of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. “Today we remember and honor migrants who have traveled to the United States to better their lives and the lives of their families.”

The procession, organized in a partnership between the archdiocese and Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, drew people of different ages and backgrounds, including families with small children, teens and young adults, middle-aged couples and senior citizens, walking behind a banner that read “Migrants, Missionaries of Hope.”

The day’s theme reflected the hope that migrants bring to their communities, their nations and to the world, and many marchers carried symbolic orange and black Monarch butterflies, harkening to the journey that those migrating insects make flying from North America to Mexico.

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