Rome:The summit of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant People began onTuesday, May 21, and ended on Friday, May 24. Attending the meeting were thePresident of the Pontifical Council, Cardinal Antonio Maria Veglio, and itsSecretary, Bishop Joseph Kalathiparambil. On Thursday afternoon, the VaticanSecretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, addressedthe meeting and concluded on Friday with a meeting with Pope Francis.
Inhis address, Archbishop Mamberti said that individuals or groups that areforced to leave their homeland are a fact that “goes back to the origin ofhumanity. They migrate for “political or religious” reasons, but also becauseof “ethnic or racial conflicts, environmental disasters, aggressions andforeign employment” among others.
Aftera historical review of the work of the Holy See in favor of migrants andrefugees, Archbishop Mamberti rejected the tendency that is evident incivilized countries: “Fear of refugees , if not hostility” against them, whilecriticizing the “restrictive and dissuasive measures that block economicmigrants as well as refugees.”
Hewarned that the protagonists of the “conflicts of the last decades arenon-State actors who challenge humanitarian workers, civilians being their mostfrequent targets. The archbishop then called for the study of “new strategiesof protection.”
TheFrench Archbishop reiterated the Holy See’s rejection of “the imposition ofcontraceptive or abortifacient practices” on migrant or refugee women. The“migrants aren’t anonymous numbers but persons,” with gifts and aspirationswhich “it is necessary to satisfy for their good and that of humanity,” headded.
“TheChurch was concerned at different levels for the refugees long before there wereinternational organisms to protect and assist them,” said the Archbishop at thebeginning of his address. The Church’s concern for migrants was confirmed byPope Paul VI, who created “the Pontifical Commission for the Pastoral ofEmigration and Tourism, the pastoral care of individuals moving beyond theirborders, such as refugees, and the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, to encouragethe faithful and Catholic organizations to witness the charity of Christ,offering aid for urgent needs, promoting initiatives of solidarity andmaintaining relations with organisms of assistance.”
Healso mentioned that during Paul VI’s pontificate, the Holy See was veryinvolved in international forums and the change in the situation which began inthe 60s, when many European countries passed from being emigrants to beingreceivers of immigration.
Becauseof this, the Holy See took part in different initiatives to receive forcedmigrants, such as the Arusha conference in 1979, that of southern Africa andthose of Geneva in 1979 and 1989, which attempted to respond to the situationof the refugees of Indochina. At the beginning of the 90s, the Holy See alsosupported, for humanitarian reasons, the temporary asylum of refugees from theformer Yugoslavia, he added.
Onnumerous trips in the different continents, the Pontiffs visited refugee camps,to give witness of the Church’s closeness and to attract the attention of theinternational community and of public opinion on the fate of these people, herecalled.
Therewere very many documents on the subject during John Paul II’s pontificate,culminating in 2000 with the Jubilee Letter on the rights of refugees, writtenin collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Therewere also addresses at the United Nations General Assembly on refugees thatstressed the need to share the costs of hospitality with countries that bearthis unsustainable burden, as well as fostering the reunification of familiesand the protection of the most vulnerable: children, women, the handicapped andthe elderly.
ArchbishopMamberti told the participants that the Holy See always supported the effort ofthe international community in different environments and within the System ofthe United Nations, in order to share experiences, to identify the way toaddress the problem and to find lasting solutions through dialogue.
Thiswas also Benedict XVI’s concern who in numerous addresses as well as in theencyclical Caritas in Veritate addresses the subject in the realm of humandevelopment.
Tosay nothing of Pope Francis and the constant testimonies of his closeness toimmigrants, to victims of the traffic of persons, and his recent appeals, suchas that at Easter, when he spoke of the gift of peace in the world “wounded byegoism that threatens human life and the family,” and the traffic of personswhich is the “most extended slavery in this 21st century.”
TheArchbishop warned, in addition, that “the burden of reception of great massesof fugitives, accompanied by periods of generalized economic crisis and concernfor security have generated and generate still today a reaction that oftencomes close to fear of the refugees if not hostility towards them.”
Theconflicts of the last two decades have changed and they are, in the main, ofnon-State actors who challenge humanitarian workers, civilians often beingtheir targets. Hence, “it is necessary to study new strategies of protection atthe local, regional and international level,” stressed Archbishop Mamberti.
Anotherproblem the Holy See criticized was education and the health of forcedimmigrants, especially women, with the imposition of contraceptive andabortifacient practices.
“Themigrants aren’t anonymous numbers, but persons, men, women and children withtheir own individual histories, with gifts that must be made available and withaspirations that must be satisfied for their good and that of humanity,” HisExcellency concluded.
Source:Zenit.org