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Bryce
@statcrux.bsky.social
· Feb 15
![Accompanying migrants
73. The experience of migration accompanies the history of the People of God. Abraham sets out without knowing where he is going; Moses leads the pilgrim people through the desert; Mary and Joseph flee with the child Jesus to Egypt. Christ himself, who "came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him" (Jn1:11), lived among us as a stranger. For this reason, the Church has always recognized in migrants a living presence of the Lord who, on the day of judgment, will say to those on his right: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Mt25:35).
74. In the nineteenth century, when millions of Europeans emigrated in search of better living conditions, two great saints distinguished themselves in the pastoral care of migrants: Saint John Baptist Scalabrini and Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini. Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza, founded the Missionaries of Saint Charles to accompany migrants to their destinations, offering them spiritual, legal and material assistance. He saw migrants as recipients of a new evangelization, warning of the risks of exploitation and loss of faith in a foreign land.
Responding generously to the charism that the Lord had given him,
"Scalabrini looked forward to a world and a Church without barriers, where no one was a foreigner."[62] Saint Frances Cabrini, born in Italy and a naturalized American, was the first citizen of the United States of America to be canonized. To fulfill her mission of assisting migrants, she crossed the Atlantic several times. "Armed with remarkable boldness, she started schools, hospitals and orphanages from nothing for the masses of the poor who ventured into the new world in search of work.
Not knowing the language and lacking the wherewithal to find a respectable place in American society, they were often victims of the unscrupulous. Her motherly heart, which allowed her no rest, reached out to them everywhere: in hovels, prisons and mines."[63] In the Holy Year of 1950…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xqynd2kypeijhhycszwtwn3z/bafkreidhvuz3z2j3sucqxzgrxcu7tgn3fy6nwc4pjh5lbc4ajlp6hywm4q@jpeg)
![75. The Church's tradition of working for and with migrants continues, and today this service is expressed in initiatives such as refugee reception centers, border missions and the efforts of Caritas Internationalis and other institutions. Contemporary teaching clearly reaffirms this commitment. Pope Francis has recalled that the Church's mission to migrants and refugees is even broader, insisting that "our response to the challenges posed by contemporary migration can be summed up in four verbs: welcome, protect, promote and integrate. Yet these verbs do not apply only to migrants and refugees. They describe the Church's mission to all those living in the existential peripheries, who need to be welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated."[65] He also said: "Every human being is a child of God! He or she bears the image of Christ! We ourselves need to see, and then to enable others to see, that migrants and refugees do not only represent a problem to be solved, but are brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected and loved. They are an occasion that Providence gives us to help build a more just society, a more perfect democracy, a more united country, a more fraternal world and a more open and evangelical Christian community."[66] The Church, like a mother, accompanies those who are walking. Where the world sees threats, she sees children; where walls are built, she builds bridges. She knows that her proclamation of the Gospel is credible only when it is translated into gestures of closeness and welcome. And she knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xqynd2kypeijhhycszwtwn3z/bafkreid7bhccon6yha7nbdfkste5mqwzptz3rgq3jijof3ny4jrfcvpjfy@jpeg)
Reposted by Bryce
Reposted by Bryce
Bryce
@statcrux.bsky.social
· Feb 11
Bryce
@statcrux.bsky.social
· 17h
Reposted by Bryce
Reposted by Bryce
