Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - A sign of the times, the phenomenon of human mobility poses no few problems religious and spiritual, and also social, economic and political. What is more the complexity, topicality and importance of “Migration and Moving to and from Muslim countries”, are clear to all. The subject will be discussed by the 17th plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, to take place 15 to 17 May with the participation of Council members and advisors and international experts. Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, the newly appointed president will present the theme on the basis of recent documents and congress of the Pontifical Council. The secretary Archbishop Agostino Marchetto will outline the thought and activity of the Council since the last Plenary. A talk by Fr. Maurice Borrmans, M. Afr., former professor at the Pontifical Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies PISAI in Rome on the situation in general regarding the life of Christians in Muslim countries, will be followed by a paper on the situation of Muslim/Christian dialogue by the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata.
Two other key interventions given by the Pope’s secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, and the secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples Archbishop Robert Sarah, will illustrate prospects for improvement in the situation, respectively from a general and African point of view, particularly dear to the Church. Experts in the field will speak on human mobility to which the Pontifical Council refers: migrants, refugees, foreign students, nomads, circus people, Apostleship of the Sea, Street Pastoral and pastoral care for civil aviation, tourism and pilgrimages. On Monday 15 May the participants will be received by Pope Benedict XVI. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 11/5/2006, righe 24, parole 319)
