EUROPE/ITALY - XIV Scalabrinian General Chapter begins: migrants and refugees "at the center of the Church"

Monday, 28 October 2019 migrants   missionary animation   missionary institutes   pope francis   evangelization  

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - The XIV General Chapter of the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo (Scalabrinians) opened, with the theme "Consecrated for the mission with migrants and refugees. ‘Walk humbly with your God’ (Mi 6,8)". The works, which take place at the International Center of Spirituality of the Sacred Heart in Rocca di Papa (Rome), were opened on October 25th by the Mass celebrated by Mgr. Giancarlo Perego, Bishop of Ferrara-Comacchio. In his homily he quoted Pope Francis and the encyclical Evangelii Gaudium, referring to the exhortation to the "outgoing Church" and to a missionary activity capable of "going to all the suburbs that need the light of the Gospel". Therefore the Bishop addressed the issue of migrants and refugees, who must be "at the center of the Church". Speaking of the commitment of the founder of the Congregation, Mgr. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini and the co-founders, Giuseppe and Assunta Marchetti, stressed the need for the "right to migrate" which is "an inalienable right" of the human race.
According to information sent to Agenzia Fides, the general superior, Sr. Neusa de Fatima Mariano, welcomed the 34 delegates representing about 600 Scalabrinian missionaries present in the world with 120 communities, who "will reflect, discern and work together on what we discovered of our religious life, in the process of interior renewal of the Congregation". In this period the Scalabrinians have renewed their structure, reorganizing themselves also with an itinerant service in support of migrants, which moves in relation to the migratory emergencies that are taking place in the world: this is an innovative project that sees them involved in different regions of the planet: in Ventimiglia (in Liguria), in the State of Roraima (in Brazil) in support of Venezuelan migrants, on the border between Mexico and the United States. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides, 28/10/2019)


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