In introducing Fr. Groody for the first segment of the panel, conference president Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo indicated that the talk would focus on the "spiritual rather than political perspective." The event program referred to the talk as discussing the "Spirituality of Immigration."
Fr. Groody began by speaking about the Mass Pope Francis celebrated at Lampedusa in July 2013, saying that he "would like to reflect a little bit on migration and the Eucharist," and "to see how we can foster a Eucharistic imagination in our people." He linked the Mass at Lampedusa, which was celebrated using an altar, lectern, and chalice crafted from the boats of refugees, to the border Mass at the United States-Mexico border.
From discussing this pair of Masses, he moved into his reflection on moving "from otherness to communion."
Discussing the "Age of Migration," he described the exploding statistics of displaced people, noting that the twenty-first century has seen more refugees than even World War II, and that migrants (even those within their own country) and refugees today comprise one-seventh of the global population.
"The first thing I want to say is that migration is an incredibly, incredibly complex issue," Fr. Groody said, and "those who don't understand its complexity either aren't listening or they don't understand."
Moving into what he described as a "Liturgy of Words," Fr. Groody outlined various groups who interact with immigrants in the United States. These include "vigilantes" living and operating at the border, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), political leaders, corporations, Church leaders, and human rights activists. He then detailed how these groups interact in legal, economic, and humanitarian capacities.