Working in collaboration with the Holy See, (Vatican), and Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, (later Pope Paul VI), Norris established, in 1951, the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC).
In his speech, Norris proposed “that from this ecumenical council there come a clarion call for action that would involve the creation of a structure that would devise the kind of institutions, contacts, forms of cooperation and policy, which the Church can adopt, to secure full Catholic participation in the world-wide attack on poverty”.
The week after James Norris’s intervention at the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI presided at a solemn Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica on November 13, 1964.
In a hand-written letter to Archbishop Paul Marcinkus that was passed on to Norris’s widow, Pope Paul wrote: “Abbiamo conosciuto da molti anni questo buono e fedele Cattolico, e abbiamo offerto la Santa Messa in suffragio della sua anima e per il cristiano conforto dei suoi parenti e dei suoi amici…Paulus P.P.
VI" Translation: ‘We have known for many years this good and faithful Catholic and we have offered the Holy Mass for the repose of his soul and the christian comfort of his relatives and friends...Paulus P.P.
James Norris, I am sure, is already enjoying the rich reward in heaven for his wonderful, noble and exemplary life; and will obtain for you the necessary grace and strength to bear the heavy cross of separation until the day dawns of eternal union and meeting.