IMAGE: CNS photo/Robert Duncan
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — No matter the position one takes on national
migration policy, Pope Francis, Caritas Internationalis and national Catholic
charities across the globe want Catholics to meet a migrant or refugee and
listen to his or her story.
In late September, Pope Francis will launch the “Share
the Journey” campaign, a two-year program of Caritas Internationalis to
promote encounters between people on the move and people living in the
countries they are leaving, passing through or arriving in.
Meeting migrants and refugees and listening to their stories
— and having them listen to the stories of people in their host communities — mean the walls people
have erected in their minds and hearts should begin to fall, said Michel Roy,
secretary general of Caritas Internationalis.
“You may be afraid of migrants as a large group of
people coming in, but when you meet a migrant, then you have a different
vision,” he said July 27. Listening to their stories makes it clear that
“they are human beings, they are human beings who have suffered much;
they’ve left a situation where they could not live anymore because of violence,
conflict or just because of misery.”
“Once you understand the story of the person, then you
will have a different attitude,” he said.
Most people who vote for political parties espousing
anti-immigrant sentiments, Roy believes, “have never met a migrant,”
which makes it easy for politicians to convince them that they have something to
fear.
Even if the person does not change their mind about the most
appropriate political policies for regulating migration, he said, it is
necessary to make the fear subside by helping folks get to know the real people
who have left all behind because of persecution, violence or extreme poverty.
Cardinal
Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines, president of Caritas Internationalis,
wrote a letter in late June asking members of the Caritas federation to
participate in the campaign. He said, “One of the most important questions
we can ask ourselves as individuals, communities and countries at this time of
mass movements of people and global doubt is ‘Do I allow fear to prevail in my
heart, or do I allow hope to reign?’
“Through ‘Share the Journey’ we hope to dispel fear and
understand why so many people are leaving their homes at this time in
history,” the cardinal wrote. “We also want to inspire communities to
build relationships with refugees and migrants. We want to shine a light and
lead the way. Migration is a very old story but our campaign aims to help
communities see it with new eyes and an open heart.”
The “Share the Journey” campaign will run at least
until 2019. The U.S. bishops’ Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities
USA, as well as more than 160 other Caritas members around the world, will be
sponsoring national and local events to provide opportunities for migrants and
members of host communities to meet and share their stories.
Through his words and, especially, his gestures, Pope
Francis “is inviting everyone on earth to be welcoming” and to
protect migrants and help them integrate into the society of their new countries,
Roy said. As a central institution of the church, he added, Caritas
Internationalis promotes what Pope Francis is asking all Catholics to do.
“Catholics are not all convinced that we have to
welcome migrants,” the secretary general acknowledged, “so I think we
have work to do within the church itself.”
But, he said, the pope is asking “everyone to make a
step,” and Caritas hopes that will begin with every Catholic being willing
to meet a migrant or refugee.
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