Sunday 27 September 2020
The Church has been celebrating the World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR) since 1914. It is always an occasion to express concern for different vulnerable people on the move; to pray for them as they face many challenges; and to increase awareness about the opportunities that migration offers.
The theme chosen by the Holy Father for the 106th World Day of Migrants and Refugees is “Forced like Jesus Christ to flee”. In his message the Holy Father says:
“Displaced people offer us this opportunity to meet the Lord, “even though our eyes find it hard to recognize him: his clothing in tatters, his feet dirty, his face disfigured, his body wounded, his tongue unable to speak our language” (homily 15 February 2019). We are called to respond to this pastoral challenge with the four verbs I indicated in my Message for this Day in 2018: welcome, protect, promote and integrate. To these words, I would now like to add another six pairs of verbs that deal with very practical actions and are linked together in a relationship of cause and effect:
• You have to know in order to understand.
• It is necessary to be close in order to serve.
• In order to be reconciled, we need to listen.
• In order to grow, it is necessary to share.
• We need to be involved in order to promote.
• It is necessary to cooperate in order to build.
Resources from the Vatican’s Migrants and Refugees Section can be found here.
The Pope' full message can be read and downloaded here.
