When Father Peter Do arrived in Louisville in May 1990 at the age of 17, the city felt like a “promised land” after a long period of waiting.
Father Do, his parents and his five older siblings, natives of Vietnam, had been waiting to come to the United States for six or seven years, he said in a recent interview.
“We were waiting and waiting and there was always something else, and they delay it, and delay it and finally we got to go,” he said.
When the family landed in Louisville, “the feeling was amazing — feeling free,” he said. “We were able to experience that freedom for the first time.”
Father Do, pastor of St. Michael Church in Jeffersontown, and his family were resettled by Catholic Charities’ Migration and Refugee Services. The department, formed in 1975, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Migration and Refugee Services helped the Do family navigate the “new world” of the city of Louisville, Father Do said.
“Catholic Charities helped us tremendously because without them, we couldn’t survive,” he said.
Catholic Charities workers met the family at the airport and transported them to an apartment, readied for their arrival with furniture and food, he said.
“We’re representing the city of Louisville in that work, the community of Louisville in that work, by welcoming people, making sure that they have what they need to get adjusted to life in a new culture, a new country, a new city.”
— Alison Voit, director
For the first three months, the family “relied heavily” on Catholic Charities, he said. The agency helped his siblings find jobs, enroll in community college and taught them how to use the bus to attend English classes. And, the agency helped him enroll in high school, where his English improved, he said.
“They provided for us everything that we needed, and we were so grateful,” he said.
When his family arrived, there were not many Vietnamese families in the area, he said. As more refugees from Vietnam were resettled by Catholic Charities, his parents became volunteers with Migration and Refugee Services, he said.
His parents would greet newly arrived families at the airport and then serve them a home-cooked Vietnamese meal at their new apartment, he said.
“A lot of them still remember my dad and mom,” he noted.
This year, Catholic Charities’ Migration and Refugee Services is celebrating 50 years of welcoming individuals into the Louisville community, said Alison Voit, director of Migration and Refugee Services, in a recent interview.
“We’re representing the city of Louisville in that work, the community of Louisville in that work, by welcoming people, making sure that they have what they need to get adjusted to life in a new culture, a new country, a new city,” she said.
The agency, which has assisted refugee clients in finding housing and employment, learning English and adapting to American culture, is Kentucky’s official representative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, one of nine U.S. agencies that had an agreement with the federal government to resettle refugees until this past April. The partnership ended in the wake of the Trump administration’s January executive order suspending refugee admissions.
The agency’s efforts don’t just affect the lives of migrants and refugees, said Voit. They impact the community, as well, making Louisville a welcoming city.
“When we do this work of welcoming people, I think it extends far beyond just the one particular community we’re welcoming,” she said. “So, when we go to JCPS (Jefferson County Public Schools), a partner of ours, or when we go to UofL Hospital, and we’re forming new partnerships and helping them to understand our clients, and helping our clients to understand how the system works, oftentimes we’re laying a foundation that makes it easier for other people to access systems in the community.”
The work of Migration and Refugee Services in the last 50 years has changed the city of Louisville, said Father Patrick Delahanty, who served the agency from 1988 to 2000.
Individuals resettled by Catholic Charities have become Louisville’s professionals, he said, noting that several doctors who were resettled in Louisville went on to receive U.S. certification and now practice locally.
In addition, the city’s wide variety of restaurants and markets is “a result of refugee resettlement,” said Father Delahanty.
Voit noted, “There are some really beloved institutions in town that wouldn’t exist if we hadn’t been here to welcome their founders.”
Prior to the agency’s official creation in 1975, Catholic Charities — aided by local parishes — helped to resettle refugees as early as 1948 with the passage of the Displaced Persons Act. Most of these refugees were Europeans displaced by World War II, noted Father Delahanty.
In 1975, after the fall of Saigon and in response to the increase in refugees coming from Southeast Asia, Catholic Charities’ Refugee and Migration Services was formalized.
Since then, the department estimates it has helped resettle more than 23,500 individuals from countries around the world, such as Vietnam, Bosnia, Cuba, Sudan, Somalia, Haiti, Myanmar, Afghanistan and the Congo.
In its 50-year history, the agency has expanded its services to meet the needs of the time.
Several services currently provided by Catholic Charities were originally established by Migration and Refugee Services, before becoming stand-alone departments. Among them are Immigration Legal Services, which began in 1992 and became its own department in 2000, and Language Services, which began in 1998 and became a stand-alone department in 2000.
Earlier this year, Migration and Refugee Services had to pivot when the Jan. 20 executive order by President Donald Trump cancelled all refugee travel to the U.S., said Voit.
Prior to this hiatus, much of the agency’s time and effort was spent on basic adjustment services, such as helping clients find apartments, register for school and find a doctor, she said.
Now, Migration and Refugee Services is focusing on providing “wrap-around support” and a “deeper level of engagement” to their resettled clients, said Voit.
Catholic Charities’ lobby is still full of clients on a weekday morning, and “there’s plenty of work to do,” she said.
“Our ESL (English as a Second Language) classes are still pretty full, so we’ve got several hundred students enrolled,” she said.
And plenty of clients are “turning to us in these confusing times where policies are constantly shifting at the federal level,” seeking to understand the changes and their impact on access to work or benefits, she said. Its employment office is still getting “plenty of foot traffic” as clients seek out jobs that can provide for their families, she said.
The department has piloted several programs in recent months, such as a financial literacy course and intensive month-long vocational courses focused on specific industries.
In the latter, enrolled clients learn an industry’s basic skills and the English phrases needed to navigate that industry, she said. The most recent course focused on working in a warehouse, so clients gained hands-on experience working in a “mini-warehouse set up with scanners” created for the program, she said.
“It’s a really great way to show employers that people are coming to them with a basic level of skills and it helps build their confidence,” she said.
The department’s youth program is “still thriving,” she noted.
Before the executive order in January, the youth programming staff spent a large amount of time registering kids in schools. Now, they’re able to shift their time, energy and funding into providing more “intensive supports,” she said.
The youth program will soon launch an after-school program, as well as a bicycle program for middle and high-school-aged students.
“There’s still work to do,” and community support is still needed, Voit said. “It’s not work we can or have ever done alone.”
The needs are varying, she noted. “We need people to pair up with our youth. We need help with administrative tasks. We need donations to keep the lights on,” she said.
During the Jubilee of Migrants celebrated at the Vatican Oct. 4 and 5, Pope Leo XIV told Catholics that welcoming migrants is part of the “new missionary age” in the history of the church.
“Today the frontiers of the missions are no longer geographical, because poverty, suffering and the desire for a greater hope have made their way to us,” he said.
Catholics, today, are called to welcome and serve “migrant brothers and sisters” arriving from violent lands, according to one’s own means, he added.
To learn more about Migration and Refugee Services, visit cclou.org/migration-and-refugee-services. To get involved, visit cclou.org/volunteer.
