AMERICA/BOLIVIA - National Day of the Migrant: “Migrants, Building Unity Among Peoples and Cultures” - “The immigrant should not be seen as a threat, but rather as enrichment.”

La Paz (Agenzia Fides) - “Migrants, Building Unity Among Peoples and Cultures” is the theme that has been chosen for the celebration of the National Day of the Migrant, which will take place in Bolivia this coming Sunday, September 6. On the occasion, the Pastoral Ministry for Human Mobility (PMH) will be holding various activities with this theme.
The National Coordinator for the PMH of Bolivia, Fr. Mario Videla, has asked everyone “to keep in mind that the most important, as Christians is not to limit our creativity, which implies being open to God's will.” It means “accepting everything that occurs around us with naturality, starting with the diversity of our brethren and the diversity of beliefs, in order to build unity together.” He then recalled that “the immigrant should not be seen as a threat, but rather as enrichment, as this year's theme indicates, contributing to the unity among peoples and cultures, which are in turn renewed, grow, and reinforced.”
Fr. Videla also made reference to what is occurring in the Pando Region where, following the approval of the new Constitution, Brazilian citizens who had been living there with their families, who had had children there and felt like Bolivians, are returning to their homeland: “in the name of national superiority, they are throwing them off their lands.” They are families who “were not prepared for this event and this is causing great tension among our brethren,” the National Coordinator for PMH said. As a preparatory activity for the National Day of the Migrant, on September 2, in the Minor Basilica of Our Lady, Help of Christians in La Paz, Bishop Gonzalo del Castillo, Military Ordinary, celebrated a Mass and told of his missionary experience with the Bolivian community in Argentina. On the afternoon of September 3, at the Salesian University in La Paz, a seminar was held on: “Immigration and the Family.” The Mass on September 6, National Day of the Migrant will be presided by Bishop Edmundo Abastoflor, in the Basilica of Saint Francis. (GT) (Agenzia Fides 4/9/2009)