The Catholic New York office at the New York Catholic Center is a short walk from the Center for Migration Studies of New York on East 60th Street near the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. I have not made the short trip, but I hope that may soon change after my conversation last week with Don Kerwin, the center’s executive director.

Our talk came on the heels of the Oct. 9 canonization of St. John Baptist Scalabrini by Pope Francis. The 19th century founder of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo was “viewed as the first social scientist of the Catholic Church that studied and sought to understand migration,” Kerwin said.