Pope Pius XII reaffirms the church's commitment to caring for pilgrims, aliens, exiles, and migrants, affirming that all people have the right to migrate to achieve a life worthy of human dignity.

[5] The Pontiff views the émigré Holy Family of Nazareth, fleeing into Egypt, as "the models and protectors of every migrant, alien and refugee of whatever kind who, whether compelled by fear of persecution or by want, is forced to leave his native land, his beloved parents and relatives, his close friends, and to seek a foreign soil.

[7] Pius XII recalled that Ambrose of Milan, after ransoming the captives taken after the defeat of the Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople, sacrificed the sacred vessels in order to relieve the destitute from physical suffering.

[2] The Fourth Council of the Lateran affirmed that experience proves that the sacred ministry is carried on more effectively among strangers and pilgrims if it is exercised by priests of their own nationality or at least who speak their language.

[12] No matter how enormous the difficulties that faced us and how impossible the times, we left nothing untried to bring some aid to our suffering sons, without discrimination as to their status or nationality.

Buildings at the Vatican as well as at the Lateran, and especially those at Castel Gandolfo; and at the Roman Basilicas, as well as these religious communities, seminaries and ecclesiastical colleges of Rome sheltered displaced persons.

"We have tried earnestly to produce in the minds of all people a sympathetic approach towards exiles and refugees who are our needier brothers [...] This we have done in radio addresses, in talks and discourses given as occasion arose, and in letters to archbishops and bishops.

"[6] In a letter of December 24, 1948 to the American Bishops, Pius wrote:The natural law itself, no less than devotion to humanity, urges that ways of migration be opened to these people.

[6] In a Christmas Address of 1948, Pius said, "It is better [...] to facilitate the migration of families into those countries able to provide them with the essentials of life, than to send foodstuffs at great expense to refugee camps.

"[6] On June 1, 1951, in a radio address on the fiftieth anniversary of the Encyclical Rerum Novarum, Pius spoke on the right of people to migrate.According to the teaching of “Rerum Novarum,” —the right of the family to a living space is recognized...the thickly inhabited countries will be relieved and their people will acquire new friends in foreign countries; and the States which receive the emigrants will acquire industrious citizens [...] In this way, the nations which give and those which receive will both contribute to the increased welfare of man and the progress of human culture.

[6]He then listed a number of relief and welfare projects that had been carried out: institutes to care for orphans and children crippled in the war; kitchens and tables with food for the needy; shelters for receiving newly released prisoners and refugees on their return to their homeland; Christmas presents given to children and prisoners; trips through various European nations to bring aid, food, clothing, medicine for the poor and victims of the war; recreation centers for soldiers far from home.