Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - “St Paul migrant, ‘Apostle of the peoples’ - No longer strangers nor guests, but family of God”: it is from the letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians that the 95th World Day of Migrants and Refugees receives its theme. The Day will be celebrated on the second Sunday after Epiphany, this year being January 18. The original purpose of the Day, which was instituted by Saint Pius X in 1914, was the solidarity of the entire Church with those who found themselves having to leave Italy in search of work outside the country. Over time, the Day has begun extending its field of interest and has gone from a merely national reality to an international one, to the point of including those who are in a situation of mobility, such as the Italians in the world, the immigrants and internally displaced people in Italy, the Rom, the Sinti, the circus people and street artists, and those who work on the sea or in the air. During the press conference presenting the Day, moderated by Fr. Domenico Popili, Director of the National Office for Social Communications of the CEI (Italian Bishops' Conference), Bishop Lino Bortolo Belotti (Auxiliary of Bergamo), President of the Bishops' Commission for Migration (CEMI), and the Migrants Foundation, it was recalled how the Day began as an awareness of the great quantity – in 1913 there were nearly 870,000 immigrants outside their homeland. This number would continue growing, as today there are over 200 million. “Migration has a direct and indirect effect on those who leave and those who stay. It is no exaggeration to say that migration effects over 500 million human beings,” Bishop Belotti said. The importance of this phenomenon has given fresh impulse to the Day and has increased the Holy See's effort in making it an important moment for renewal, in which every year is spent reflecting on a different theme.
In this Jubilee Year dedicated to the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Saint Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, it seems that he is a perfect incarnation of the interior and exterior events that migrants of all times, especially nowadays, must face. Msgr. Piergiorgio Saviola, General Director of the Migrants Foundation (an entity of the CEI that sees to the pastoral care of Italian migrants and foreigners), presented and introduced this year's theme: “For this year's Day, which falls within the Year of Saint Paul, the Holy Father has proposed a concrete person, Paul of Tarsus, known above all as the Apostle to the Gentiles, but who can also be represented as the Apostle of migrants and a migrant himself.” In Italy, it is typical to place a subtitle linking the theme to the present situation; a present that is characterized by great acts of welcoming and brotherhood, but also cases of intolerance, prejudice, and rejection. “By no means are we trying to close our eyes to the negative elements that comprise the complex phenomenon of the present migrant situation, nor to the uncivil or criminal behavior of some migrants, however it would be an aberration to place this latter aspect at the center and give it so much importance that we lose sight of the rest of the migrant situation, thus only increasing criticism and prejudices, hate, threats, and postures that our evidently opposed to the Gospel,” Msgr. Saviola said. He concluded, saying: “Today, there is a harmony between the Pauline formula and that genuine humanism that forms a part of our best tradition.”
The concluding talk was given by Msgr. Antonio Pitta, of the Pontifical Lateran University, who reflected on the title of the Day, showing how the migration phenomenon concerns all men and is indispensable in overcoming the feeling of rejection towards foreigners, as has occurred since the dawn of the Christian experience. (PC) (Agenzia Fides 15/1/2009)
