By seeking better life, migrants teach hope, determination, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Migrants demonstrate what hope is, and the Catholic Church must support them to keep that hope alive, Pope Francis said.

“If migrants are to preserve the strength and resilience necessary for them to continue on their journey, they need someone to attend to their wounds and to care for them in their extreme physical, spiritual and psychological vulnerability,” the pope told members of the Scalabrinians during an audience at the Vatican Oct. 28.

“Effective pastoral interventions that demonstrate closeness on the material, religious and human levels are required in order to keep their hope alive and to help them advance on their personal journey toward God, their faithful companion on the way,” he said.

The pope lamented “the hostility shown by rich countries that perceive those knocking at their door as a threat to their own well-being.”

“Those who leave their native countries often do so because of tragic and unjust situations of unequal opportunity, the absence of democracy, fear of what the future may hold, or the devastation caused by the wars that plague our planet,” he said. “This problem is aggravated by the closing of borders” and the hostility shown by wealthier nations.

During this “dramatic confrontation between the interests of those who hoard their wealth and the struggle of those trying simply to survive by fleeing from hunger and persecution, many human lives are being lost, even as others look on with indifference and as some, even worse, turn those situations of suffering to their own advantage,” he said, condemning the “scandal” of apple growers in northern Italy taking in migrants from central Europe only to send them away once the harvest is over.

The congregation, founded by St. John Baptist Scalabrini in 1887, is an international community of religious serving migrants and refugees of different cultures, religions and ethnicities in 35 countries and on five continents. During the congregation’s general chapter, Scalabrinian Father Leonir Chiarello was reelected in mid-October to another six-year term as superior general.

Pope Francis praised the congregation for its work and charism, saying he was thinking of them when he decided to elevate to the College of Cardinals Scalabrinian Father Fabio Baggio, undersecretary and head of the section for migrants and refugees at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

“I wanted to do it before, but he did not want to,” the pope said. But “out of obedience,” the Italian missionary will be made a cardinal at a consistory Dec. 7.

“Take this as a gesture of esteem, of great esteem,” Pope Francis said.

“Migrants teach us to hope,” he said, highlighting how as a child of Italian immigrants in Argentina, his family always felt going to “America” was a way to flourish and have a better life.

“Often inspired by their love for the families they have left behind,” he said, the determination of those who immigrate “can teach us a great deal.” Migration can be a moment of growth for everyone, “when proper support is provided.”

Migrants are to be welcomed, accompanied, supported and integrated in the host communities, he said.

Regardless of who they are or where they came from, all immigrants are to be “viewed as a gift of God, unique, sacred, inviolable, a precious resource for the benefit of all,” he said.