By David Chua
THE Head of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travellers will visit Perth from 5 – 6 May this year as part of a national trip for “exposure to migrant communities” in Australia.
Archbishop Antonio Maria Vegliò, President of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, will meet with chaplains at the Maylands Polish community on 5 May and celebrate a public Mass with Chinese and Indonesian Catholic communities on 6 May, for which a celebration is planned following the Mass.
Archbishop Vegliò told the US Bishops’ Conference in May last year that the starting point for ministering to migrants, refugees and trafficked persons is to understand their situation and all its components – personal, social, economic, political – in the light of God’s Word and to recognise its commitment to get involved.
“Naturally, it also has to address those factors that cause their uprootedness,” the prelate said.
“In this commitment the Church is guided by the ‘permanent principles’ of its ‘social doctrine [that] constitute the very heart of Catholic social teaching. These are the principles of the dignity of the human person … which is the foundation of all the other principles and content of the Church’s social doctrine: the common good, subsidiary and solidarity.’”
Perth Archdiocesan Vicar for Migrants Fr Blasco Fonseca’s announcement of Archbishop Vegliò’s Australian tour – which also includes Sydney, Brisbane, Darwin, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Canberra – comes days after Pope Benedict XVI’s call to respect all migrants and refugees as “brothers and sisters” at this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, 16 January.
The World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which seeks to “invite us to reflect on the experience of many men, women and families who leave their own country in search of better living conditions”, was held this year with the theme of “one human family”.
Pope Benedict emphasised the ever-growing necessity for countries and individuals to cater for migrants at a time where global intermigration has reached an unprecedented level.
“The phenomenon of globalisation itself, characteristic of our epoch, is not only a social and economic process, but also entails humanity itself [that] is becoming increasingly interconnected, crossing geographical and cultural boundaries,” the Pope said.
The Pontiff also quoted the words of the Second Vatican Council, that “all peoples are one community and have one origin, because God caused the whole human race to dwell on the face of the earth; they also have one final end, God.”
“Welcoming refugees and giving them hospitality is for everyone an imperative gesture of human solidarity, so that they may not feel isolated because of intolerance and disinterest”, Pope Benedict said.