KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The message "to welcome the stranger" reverberated throughout the weekend here at an immigration conference sponsored by the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Panels of immigrants, bishops, church ministries, and immigrant aid groups urged reform during the conference, located at Rockhurst University.

After a Mass concelebrated by Bishop Robert Finn of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese and Bishop George Murry of the Youngstown diocese, some 200 conference participants heard keynote speaker Murry discuss the church teachings on immigration and the need to reform current U.S. immigration policies.

Read the full story here: Conference calls for 'comprehensive and just' immigration reform [1]