EUROPE/SPAIN - Bishops’ message for Migration Day: "an opportunity to increase awareness of the situation and let it challenge us in the light of the word of God to make a new start with greater commitment "

Madrid (Agenzia Fides) - “You are 44 million members of one family... "you are members of the family of God " (Eph 2,19)", is the title of a message issued by the Catholic Bishops of Spain on the occasion of Migration Day in Spain Sunday 14 January. The Bishops hope the day “will be an opportunity to increase awareness of the situation and let it challenge us in the light of the word of God to make a new start with greater commitment to fulfil our duty as citizens and believers all through the year". The Bishops endorse concern for the "the migrant family", expressed in Pope Benedict XVI’s Message for International Migrants Day (18 December 2006) and his homilies on the occasion of the 5th World Meeting for Families held in Valencia, and they urge Catholics and all men and women of good will in Spain “to adopt an attitude of cordial welcome and fraternal relations with immigrant families”.
The Bishop underline the Church’s efforts with regard to Catholic immigrants and their families to make them feel at home with the same rights and duties as Spanish born individuals and families. The Bishops calls on parishes to "welcome immigrant families, help their progressive integration in parish life and grow in mutual knowledge and participation with local families". Catholic schools and other ecclesial institutions must help immigrants feel they are members of the family of God. The Bishop say the same attitude must be adopted towards Christians of other traditions such as Orthodox and Anglican Christians because "we are brother and sisters in the faith and this must be clearly seen from our fraternal behaviour".
The Bishops recall that the Church’s concern and social charity services are also offered to immigrants of other religions or no religion and they call on public administration to "adopt just and adequate measures to defend and guarantee the dignity and rights of immigrants and their families". Society must see "immigrants and their families not as a danger or a burden but as an enriching presence to be warmly welcomed and cared for as brothers and helped towards peaceful and enriching integration."
"In Spain - the Bishops write - people continue to arrive without legal requisites to guarantee work and housing and a future of hope". Noting that many immigrants are exploited the Bishops thanks those involved in arranging reception, assistance and guidance and concrete solutions to their needs. The Bishops conclude addressing immigrants, thanking them for being "a valuable contribution for society and the Church" expressing the wish that immigrants "may quickly feel at home, part of the family, so that with the help of the Lord and in a spirit of mutual respect everyone may work together to build a society of more justice, concern for others and peace, showing to the world a Christian community of children of God and brothers united despite difference of origin, culture, race, religion or nation". (RG) (Agenzia Fides 12/1/2007; righe 39, parole 561)