A new partnership is being born within diocesan offices this week.

Beginning Oct. 1, the Office of Migration and Refugee Services (MRS), established in 1975, will come under the umbrella of Arlington diocesan Catholic Charities. The coupling of the two social services programs will streamline the assistance the offices provide to refugees, immigrants or those seeking asylum.

“It will ensure that services are effective, efficient,” Luteran said. “It eliminates any disconnect that may have been occurring; it will help combine resources.”

Though the flow chart will change — Seyoum Berhe, the director of MRS, will now report to Luteran instead of Oblate Father Mark Mealey, vicar general — the services offered will remain the same. Also known as the Office of Resettlement, MRS assists refugees from all around the globe, especially war-torn countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. It will continue to work, without interruption, with the hundreds of clients who look to them for assistance each year.

“We don’t foresee any disruption in the client services whatsoever,” Luteran said. “In fact, this should strengthen the services they provide. It should be very transparent to clients who are being served.”

Father Mealey said that combining the office makes sense because both programs have the common mission of reaching out to those in need.

“Through these ministries, the Diocese of Arlington offers programs to promote the physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of those who have no one to turn in their hour of need,” Father Mealey said. “The merger of the Resettlement Office with Catholic Charities will expand the outreach of our many programs and increase those served by these combined efforts throughout our diocese."

The combination of the programs neither is unprecedented or unexpected. Catholic Charities offices in most dioceses in the country operate the refugee services, and discussions to that end have been underway in Arlington for nearly two years.

“It’s nothing new,” Berhe said. “We knew, but we didn’t know exactly when.”

Both Luteran and Berhe look at the organizational shift as one that is mutually beneficial.

As a part of Catholic Charities, MRS will have increased access to counseling services and emergency assistance, and will be included in the Catholic Charities “voice” when that organization reaches out to parishes for support. The staff at MRS will, in turn, be able to offer a “wealth of information” regarding refugees, cultures and languages to their new colleagues at Catholic Charities, Luteran said.

The culturally diverse MRS staff — all employees speak at least two languages, and some up to seven — is a “highly professional and dedicated group” that has taken on a mission rather than a job, Berhe said.

As employees of Catholic Charities, the MRS staff will be able to better assist clients with housing, learning English and immigration issues.

“Those are very strong entities within Catholic Charities, and those are extremely needed entities from our perspective,” Berhe said. “Being part of a larger organization, we can share expertise on both sides to do things better.”

MRS will be able to send clients to Catholic Charities English as a Second Language programs at diocesan parishes for free instead of paying a fee through the county. They will begin referring their immigration clients to Hogar Hispano, the Catholic Charities immigration program.

“I think we have a similar view of where we are all going,” Berhe said. “Any change will have its own challenges and I expect that. But the mission is the same. We are going toward the same end. Whichever way we zigzag, we’re going to end up in the same spot.”

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