01/20/2026
MLK Day Statement — Old Catholic Churches International
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we honor Dr. King not only with remembrance, but with renewed moral courage. As the Old Catholic Churches International, we speak from the heart of the Gospel: love of neighbor, protection of the vulnerable, and unwavering commitment to the inherent dignity of every human being. Our Church has affirmed that we are “rooted in the foundational Christian call to love our neighbor and uphold the inherent dignity of every human being,” and that this faith compels us to oppose policies that “punish poverty rather than alleviate it.”
Today, the parallels to Dr. King’s warnings are unmistakable. We grieve the ways poverty is treated as a nuisance to be removed instead of a wound to be healed—through displacement, criminalization, and responses that harden the public conscience rather than strengthen the common good. As we have stated, actions that remove people from public spaces without meaningful support “do not solve the complex issue of homelessness but merely displace suffering,” and the trend toward criminalization is a “profound moral failing.” We reiterate plainly: poverty is not a crime.
This same Christian obligation applies to immigrants and refugees. When immigrants are treated as threats rather than neighbors—when fear, humiliation, intimidation, or detention becomes routine—we are witnessing a denial of human dignity in practice. A nation’s greatness is not measured by how efficiently it hides suffering, but by how faithfully it protects those most at risk.
We pray for a “presence of justice,” and we commit ourselves to action that restores: mercy joined to truth, solidarity joined to advocacy, and public policies shaped by compassion rather than cruelty. We stand in unwavering solidarity with all who are pushed to the margins.
