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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “Where human beings are, with their joys and sorrows, there is the Church, with its pastoral presence. Ecclesial attention for human mobility, however, does not end with a presence of a general kind. Rather, it is manifested in the proclamation of the Gospel, through witness, the word, and pastoral action in those places and environments where contemporary men and women lead a particular way of life, a result of taking up responsibility at work or in attempting to survive.”. This is part of a final document issued after the 2nd International Meeting on the Pastoral Care of the Road held at the Offices of the Pontifical Council or the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples in the Vatican 1- 2 December 2006 . The final document, with the title “On the road to sustainable mobility” gives a summary of the meeting and testimony of pastoral operators in this fields, followed by the conclusions and recommendations.
“The Lord Jesus accompanies the people in their daily lives, - we read in the Conclusions - thanks also to the Church present in the community, in schools, in the airports, in train stations and on the roads and streets, by means of a pastoral care of meeting and welcome, there where men and women live every day, or where they stop in order to take up their work again later on, and go on their way. Indeed, the foundation of its pastoral work is the awareness that whatever is done to the least is done to Christ himself. Therefore, the Church also recognizes the dignity and the rights of the inhabitants of the street - children and women of the street, and the homeless - because they, too, are created to the image and likeness of God. The preferential option for the poor is thus renewed, so that they can live with respect and a fresh sense of responsibility”.
The recommendations include more pastoral attention for the benefit of drivers and professionals in road and railways transport: there must be a more thorough examination of pastoral attention for a secure and sustainable mobility that respects life, human persons, their dignity, rights and destiny; a sharing of knowledge be promoted, and dialogue be encouraged among all social actors involved in mobility; contacts with the social means of communication be intensified, in order to invite them to analyze with greater care the messages they transmit daily and to become our allies in the work of education, including road education; the right of professional and workers of the road to have secure working conditions be safeguarded; places and occasions of meeting with professionals of the road be created, since differently from those who use a car for personal or family reasons, the former are more sensitive to the feeling of solitude and distance from their family. these meetings be held in places considered by the people involved as “their own”, like big parking areas, as well as highway stops; these meetings be turned into moments of a more intense spiritual life, with the possibility of growing in the faith.
With regard to people living on the streets the participants recommend: their unexpressed need for salvation and security be answered, by going to the places where they are, in the streets, and not merely waiting for them in reception centres; the quality of such centres be improved such that these may truly be places of welcome and solidarity, and an extended family, where spiritual, and not only material, needs are satisfied; the inhabitants of the street be helped to discover their own dignity and regain an adequate level of self-esteem; they be loved, respected, kept near, be “called by name” in fact, so as to give them back a more human life. In this way, they in turn will learn to love one another and help others; a family be given to those who do not have one, or maybe never ever had one, especially the street children; they be helped to reintegrate into society; they should not be compelled to follow prefabricated programs, but rather arrangements should be designed to respond to their needs; activities be organized for children at risk, and appropriate associations be formed such that the street would lose the attraction that it may still have, in spite of everything; work be done in the places where children and women of the street originate, above all, so that the causes of their wretched situation could be overcome; a pastoral care of presence, welcome and accompaniment be set up to give concrete responses to the needs that could arise; work be done to change mentalities with respect to these new forms of poverty, exploitation and slavery, with the commitment to have the value and dignity of the human person rediscovered, leaving aside his objective or temporary conditions of life; the creation of a specific website be considered, to facilitate a sharing of experiences and information in this important field of human and pastoral care. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 17/1/2007 - righe 44, parole 625)
