“God walks with His people” is the theme of Pope Francis’ message for the 110th World Migrant and Refugee Day, presented on 3 June 2024, at the Holy See Press Office.
The Pope wished to recall that all of us, God’s people, are migrants on this earth, on our way to the “true homeland”, the Kingdom of Heaven. Migrants are a contemporary icon of this people on a journey, of the Church on a journey and, at the same time, it is in them and in all our vulnerable brothers and sisters that we can encounter the Lord who walks with us.
Card. Michael Czerny, S.J., Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, called for more emphasis on the push and pull factors behind forced migration, rather than rejecting and repressing those on the way.
Inviting everyone to question themselves, the cardinal added that ‘we too, if we experienced such pressures, would flee. So, let us try to see migrants as brothers and sisters, whether they are forced to flee or stuck at the border, or both. Their journeys of despair and hope could be our own. Moreover, as Pope Francis states in his closing prayer, it is wrong to become selfishly possessive of our God-given corner of temporary earthly dwelling“. Presenting the pope’s message, the Cardinal explained that the Holy Father “invites us to read the migrations, often forced, of so many brothers and sisters as a true sign of the times, an icon of the pilgrim Church towards the eternal homeland”.
Sr. Patricia Murray, I.B.V.M., Executive Secretary of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) and delegate to the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, recalled how the synod emphasises the link between the cry of the poor and the cry of the Earth and the need to urgently address the ecological crisis if we are to protect the lives of the most vulnerable and address the threat to all humanity. Sr Murray invites us to let ourselves be questioned by the statue in St Peter’s Square, “a symbol of the pain and struggle of the journey of men, women and children as they strive to reach their promised land”.
foto da www.infoans.org
Welcoming migrants and refugees is crucial, they are all wounded by deep trauma: “Many have lost their homes and livelihoods due to climate change and environmental destruction. […] Some are deeply grieving, I am thinking in particular of mothers and fathers whose children have escaped their grasp on the high seas and in storms and who are inconsolable for the loss of their sons and daughters or the many who have seen their family and friends die along the way, overwhelmed by the demands of the journey.”
Sister Murray recalled another image, that of the tent, a reminder to “open spaces in our hearts and lives for encounter, exchange and deep listening. When we listen to the other person’s story, we become responsible for him, for her, and they in turn become responsible for us. This is the reciprocity of participation, communion and mission that is at the heart of our synodal way of walking together, of living together.”
Valuable contribution was made by Blessing Okoedion, trafficking survivor, cultural mediator, president of Weavers of Hope.
Born and raised in Edo State, now considered the centre of human trafficking in Nigeria, Okoedion was tricked into coming to Europe in 2013, a hostage of her tormentors because of a 65,000 euro debt. She recounts: “Thanks to the education that allowed me to know my basic rights, and thanks to God who gave me the strength and courage, I managed to escape and denounce. After denouncing, I was taken to an anti-trafficking centre: Casa Rut in Caserta, where I met sister Rita Giaretta, who is currently in charge of Casa Magnificat in Rome. Sister Rita was for me one of those good Samaritans that the Holy Father speaks of when he says that, thanks be to God, there are good Samaritans along the way; this is what I experienced when I met Sister Rita who welcomed and loved me.
This love and this welcome gave Okoedion, who is now a witness to the phenomenon of trafficking, the strength to write a book – ‘The Courage of Freedom’ – and to become a cultural mediator and interpreter: ‘I decided to get back into the game, to tell my story and to fight human trafficking. From this struggle an association called Weavers of Hope was born, founded with other African women survivors of human trafficking. Okoedion graduated in Political Science and International Relations at the University L’Orientale in Naples, with a thesis on the reintegration of trafficked Nigerian women in Italy.
World Migrant and Refugee Day will be celebrated on Sunday 29 September 2024.
Here are the materials in preparation for such an important day.
God, Almighty Father,
we are your pilgrim Church
journeying towards the Kingdom of heaven.
We live in our homeland,
but as if we were foreigners.
Every foreign place is our home,
yet every native land is foreign to us.
Though we live on earth,
our true citizenship is in heaven.
Do not let us become possessive
of the portion of the world
you have given us as a temporary home.
Help us to keep walking,
together with our migrant brothers and sisters,
toward the eternal dwelling you have prepared for us.
Open our eyes and our hearts
so that every encounter with those in need
becomes an encounter with Jesus, your Son and our Lord.
Amen.
