Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “ The vast globalisation process underway around the world brings a need for mobility, which also induces many young people to emigrate and live far from their families and their countries. The result is that many times the young people endowed
with the best intellectual resources leave their countries of origin, while in the countries that receive the migrants, laws are in force that make their actual insertion difficult.” The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI writes this in his Message for the 94th World Day for Refugees and Migrants to be celebrated Sunday 13 January 2008, dedicated especially to young migrants.
The Pope underlines that “ the phenomenon of emigration is becoming ever more widespread and includes a growing number of people from every social condition”, and many young migrants who experience “ the problems of the so-called "difficulty of dual belonging”: on the one hand, they feel a strong need to not lose their culture of origin, while on the other, the understandable desire emerges in them to be inserted organically into the society that receives them. Benedict XVI then mentions migrant children, “ more easily to exploitation, moral forms of blackmail, and even abuses of all kinds”, unaccompanied minors and adolescents “ boys and girls often end up on the street abandoned to themselves and prey to unscrupulous exploiters who often transform them into the object of physical, moral and sexual violence”.
In the Message the Pope speaks of “distressing” images of vast camps of refugees or displaced persons in many parts of the world, which for many children and adolescents are the only experience of life, “ where they are segregated, far from inhabited towns, with no possibility normally to attend school”. Then Benedict XVI calls for greater effort to “ to help them by creating suitable hospitality and formative structures.”.
To meet the expectations of young migrants it is necessary to aim for support for the family and school, while not overlooking the difficulties these young people encounter in their family and school contexts. The Message underlines the need to “provide specific formative paths of integration for the immigrant boys and girls that are suited to their needs” and “ create a climate of mutual respect and dialogue among all the students in the classrooms based on the universal principles and values that are common to all cultures”. This holds even more for the young refugees for whom adequate programs will have to be prepared, both in the scholastic and the work contexts.
“ The Church looks with very particular attention at the world of migrants - the Message continues - and asks those who have received a Christian formation in their countries of origin to make this heritage of faith and evangelical values bear fruit in order to offer a consistent witness in the different life contexts”. Hosting ecclesial communities are called to “ to welcome the young and very young people with their parents with sympathy, and to try to understand the vicissitudes of their lives and favour their insertion.
The number of students who are far from home is also growing, and they need special pastoral care, the Pope remarks. “They often feel alone under the pressure of their studies and sometimes they are also constricted by economic difficulties,” the Pope writes adding “ The Church, in her maternal concern, looks at them with affection and tries to put specific pastoral and social interventions into action that will take the great resources of their youth into consideration.”.
In the last part of the Message the Holy Father addresses young migrants: “prepare yourselves to build together your young peers a more just and fraternal society by fulfilling your duties scrupulously and seriously towards your families and the State. Be respectful of the laws and never let yourselves be carried away by hatred and violence. Try instead to be protagonists as of now of a world where understanding and solidarity, justice and peace will reign. I ask you young believers to use your years of study to grow in knowledge and love of Christ”.
The Holy Father encourages young people to strive to build a profound relationship with Jesus in prayer, listening to his Word in order to live the Gospel with courage “ expressing it in concrete acts of love of God and generous service to your brothers and sisters. The Church needs you too and is counting on your contribution. You can play a very providential role in the current context of evangelisation. Coming from different cultures, but all united by belonging to the one Church of Christ, you can show that the Gospel is alive and suited to every situation; it is an old and ever new message. It is a word of hope and salvation for the people of all races and cultures, of all ages and epochs.".” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 29/11/2007; righe 55, parole 803)
