Happy New Year! As we enter 2026, we find ourselves once again confronting questions that refuse to remain theoretical—questions about borders and belonging, compassion and responsibility, charity and political order. Immigration will continue to press itself upon public life, Church teaching, and the Christian conscience, often framed in stark moral absolutes that leave little room for prudence or historical memory. It is therefore worth beginning the year by examining one of the most frequently invoked—and most frequently misunderstood—Christian images in this debate: the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt.
This image of the Holy Family is frequently invoked in modern immigration debates. It is often presented as the definitive Christian archetype of the refugee family—one that allegedly demands unconditional welcome and the suspension of prudential judgment. Yet this sentimental reading collapses under historical scrutiny and, in doing so, distorts the moral tradition it claims to defend.
At the time of Christ’s birth, Egypt was not a foreign nation-state but a province of the Roman Empire, annexed in 30 B.C. Joseph did not cross into an alien political order governed by unfamiliar laws and customs; he traveled within the same imperial jurisdiction that encompassed Judea.SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (New York: Liveright,
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