Pope Leo XIV releases the theme for the 2026 World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which focuses on the need for pastoral care for minors on the move.
The Catholic Church’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees will focus this year on minors on the move, recalling the duty to welcome each one of them as the Gospel teaches us. “Even just one of these children” is the theme that Pope Leo XIV has chosen for 112th day, which will be marked on Sunday, 27 September 2026.
The decision was announced by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The title is a reference to Matthew 18:5: “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” “With this choice, the Holy Father intends to express the Church’s concern for minors directly involved in migration, recalling the duty to welcome each one of them as the Gospel teaches us. Dicastery also notes that this “is not the first time that the Popes have spoken authoritatively on this issue, but the current migration situation presents new challenges that seriously threaten the rights and dignity of the youngest among us and require urgent and effective responses. Therefore, this is not a matter of discussing numbers or percentages, because ‘even just one’ has the highest value.”
Pope Leo will release a message a few weeks ahead of the World Day.
The origins of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees can be traced to 1914, a few months before the outbreak of World War I. Touched by the drama of millions of Italians who had migrated abroad since the beginning of the 20th century, Pope Pius X called on all Christians to pray for migrants.
A few months later, his successor Pope Benedict XV instituted the Day of the Migrant to spiritually and economically support pastoral work for Italian emigrants. In 1952, Migrant Day took on a broader and more international connotation, and Churches around the world were called upon to choose a date to celebrate the day during the liturgical year.
St. John Paul II was the first pontiff to issue, each year since 1985, a message drawing attention to some of the specific realities and difficulties of people on the move, calling the Church to action. In 2004, the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People extended the day to refugees, calling it the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
At the behest of St. John Paul II, since 2005, the World Day of Migrants and Refugees has been celebrated by the Universal Church on the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany.
On the 104th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, January 14, 2018, Pope Francis announced that the day would be marked henceforth on the last Sunday of September. (Vatican News)
