A statement on the current migratory situation of the General Direction of the Missionaries of St. Charles – Scalabrinians, the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo – Scalabrinians and the Scalabrinian Secular Missionaries, at the conclusion of their annual meeting, held in Rome from July 1 to 3, 2018:
Migration is an epochal phenomenon that is shaking the structures of many nations at all levels. It is certainly a problem, which results from the sum of many problems, but like all problems it depends on us to turn it into a tragedy or a richness. The history of the peoples has been made by great waves of migration, and today we have the chance to live one, with the advantage of being able to read the causes and the effects on the global level and therefore also to obtain a surplus of humanity. We must become the actors of a progress in the consciousness of human dignity proper to every man, we can contribute to the reform of a general framework in which human ecology is inserted in the ecology of nature.
We believe that the four verbs with which Pope Francis, on this year’s World Migrant’s Day, are gaining more and more relevance, he has asked peoples and nations to address the issue of migrants by becoming: Welcoming, protecting, promoting, integrating.
There is a big obstacle on this path, and it is fear, fear of losing one’s well-being, fear of losing one’s identity, fear of the other. It is a profound sentiment that must be heard, nonetheless, to help overcome it: the fear leads to closure and closure leads to death.
Numerous press and media reinvigorate this fear, intensifying negative facts and completely ignoring the respectable welcome and integration practices that arise almost everywhere, especially from voluntary work.
If we want to pursue the path of happiness, which is the path that seeks every human heart, we must pursue the path of fraternity, renewing and actualizing today the appeal with which St. John Paul II opened his pontificate: open the doors to Christ.
Today we are called to repeat the same cry: open the doors to our brothers and sisters.
