Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Tecún-Umán (Agenzia Fides) – From June 2-4, the city of Tecún-Umán is hosting the II Migration Meeting attended by Bishops from the US, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. The Encounter began on June 2, with a talk by Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, who spoke on “The Conciliar Church and the Pastoral Care of Welcome,” showing the pastoral care of welcome that the Church offers, at the light of the II Vatican Council.
The Church, said Archbishop Marchetto, is missionary by nature “to communicate its treasure and become rich in new gifts and values.” He said that the theological and ecclesial foundations of the pastoral care of welcome in the evangelization of cultures are found in the Instruction “Erga migrantis Caritas Christi.” “This is the specific pastoral care of migration, making contact between people of different nationalities, ethnicity and religion, contributing to making visible the true character of the Church.” It is through them, in fact, “that the plan of saving the communion of God will be carried out. However, the ecclesial welcome offered to migrant Catholics is a privileged opportunity, albeit often a painful one, to achieve a greater sense of belonging to the Universal Church beyond particularities.”
The phenomenon of migration, he said, helps to “discover that mission is accomplished not only in the so-called missionary territories, traditionally those of Africa or Asia, given that today the inhabitants of different continents are moving, and along with them, mission must move.” The prelate showed that the key to missionary work with immigrants can be summed up in two words: “dialogue” and “proclamation,” based upon “the freedom of the act of faith, the duty to search for the truth, the rejection of relativism as far as religion is concerned.”
He also reflected on the importance of the commitment of the entire People of God, in the service of an integrated pastoral care, together, in favor of migrants, beginning with the laity. Here, he recalled that the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People sent the lay associations and ecclesial movements, after consulting the Pontifical Council for the Laity, a letter “inviting them to put themselves at the heart of serving the cause of immigrants in the various expressions of human mobility.” On June 18 of last year, Tijuana (city in northern Mexico, bordering the USA) hosted the I Meeting for Bishops from Mexico, the United States, and Central America on the question of immigration (see Fides 24/6/2008). Less than one month ago, a note from the “Casa del Migrante” of Tecún-Umán addressed the terrible acts committed against Central Americans without papers, who try to pass through Mexico to reach the United States. There are men and women who are “victims of robbery, kidnapping, blackmail, sexual abuse, servitude, and slavery.”
The “Casa del Migrante,” which is run by the Missionarie of Saint Charles Borromeo, Scalabrinian Fathers, religious congregation whose charism is focused on pastoral work with migrants. Fr. Ademar Barilli, Director of the Casa del Migrante, denounced the fact that the difficulties encountered by illegal immigrants from Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras, begin in their own countries, because the authorities demand money in exchange for permission to leave the country, and once they reach Guatemala and Mexico, the abuses worsen. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 3/6/2009)
