Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The phenomena of human mobility, voluntary or forced has always marked human history, but in the last few decades it has taken on an almost universal dimension and with increasingly complex characteristics. Every continent, all governments and international organizations are, therefore, called to confront this issue and with all its new forms. In order to better examine the situation, in the context of the African continent, this Congress is being offered as a sort of observation laboratory, to be attended by representatives from over twenty African nations, including Bishops and pastoral care workers. It will be an opportunity for listening, reflection, and dialogue in order to find new means, also in continuation with the past, for pastoral activity uniquely designed for the millions of migrants and refugees of Africa.
The program includes opening addresses from the Apostolic Nuncio of Kenya, the Archbishop of Nairobi, and the President of the Kenyan Bishops’ Conference. The sessions’ speakers include Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People and Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Dicastery, who will speak on the importance of attention to the new pastoral itineraries in the area of service to refugees and victims of human trafficking. Msgr. Novatus Rugambwa, Undersecretary, will reflect on the new forms of slavery in connection with migration. These themes are all of great relevance in the African continent, as the unfortunate events of recent days continue to demonstrate.
Dr. Johan Ketelers, Secretary General of the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), will present the general situation of migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons in Africa. Cardinal Peter Kodwo Turkson, Archbishop of Cape Coast (Ghana) will reflect on the dialogue being carried out in the migration field between the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar and the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE). Later in the Congress, there will be two round-table discussions focusing on the pastoral experiences in favor of migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, and victims of human trafficking, led by various pastoral care workers from several African nations, coordinated by His Beatitude Antonios Naguib, Patriarch of Alexandria for Copts and Archbishop Robert C. Ndlovu of Harare (Zimbabwe). The study sessions will be held twice and the reflections and suggestions that emerge over the course of the workshops and debates will be published in the conclusions and recommendations of the final document issued at its close. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 27/05/2008; righe 35, parole 410)
