What the Church, our Catholic Church, and its Social
Doctrine,
is saying about our theme:
“Migration, a chance to build bridges”
I have skimmed through the wonderful Compendium of the Social
Doctrine of the Church. Stupor: in the copious table filling almost
half of the book, I have found only six references, and each time it is only
references, to the words migration, immigrants or migrants. But the major
question about the lives of our societies – just amply demonstrated by the
intervention of Antonietta – is not the topic of any one chapter or of even one
special paragraph
As to Code of Canonic Law (www.vatican.va/archive/ccc/index_fr.htm), only two “canons” refer to
migrants, underlining simultaneously, the duty of people to welcome the
stranger, the migrant, and the duties of the migrant towards the country
sheltering him:
Canon 1911. The
human inter dependences have intensified. Slowly, it spreads to the entire
world. The unity of the human family, gathering beings with equal dignity,
implicates a universal common good. This calls for an organisation of the
community of nations capable of “providing for the diverse needs of men, in the
field of social life (food, health, education…) as well as in facing the many
different particular circumstances that may arise here and elsewhere: the
caring of refugees, the assistance to migrants and their families…)(GS 84, § 2).
Canon 2241. The better provided for nations are
bound to welcome, as much as it is possible, the foreigner in quest of security
and vital resources he cannot find in his own country. The public authorities
must control that the natural law, placing the visitor under the protection of
the host, be respected. The political authorities may, in the light of the
common good of which they are responsible, subordinate the application of the
right of immigration to diverse juridical conditions, namely to the respect of
the duties of the migrant towards his country of adoption. The immigrant is
compelled to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual patrimony of his
adopted country, to obey to its laws and to contribute to its charges.
These fundamental documents (Code and
Compendium) are, as you know, the translations in “practical manuals” of the
orientations of Vatican II ’s Council. Four times, the Constitution Gaudium
and Spes (“The Church in today’s world”) makes reference to migrants, to
immigrants (GS 6, 27, 66, 84) and the decree about the duties of bishops (Christus
Dominus, 16) invites bishops to “ have special solicitude … towards the emigrants, the exiled, the
refugees…) The decree on the lay Apostolate – concerning particularly our
MIAMSI, whose text was promulgated by Pope Paul VI and immediately presented to
our dear founder, Marie-Louise MONNET! – says: “Among the diverse apostolate
actions, and particularly those of family apostolate, let us particularly quote
(…): welcome kindly the stranger” (AL 11).
The first official document from the Holy See
defining, in a global and systematic manner, from an historical and canonic
viewpoint, the pastoral for migrants, is the apostolical Constitution "Exsul
Familia", published by Pie XII on the 1rst of August 1952.
This document will be taken again, amplified and considerably actualized into what actually constitutes the charter of the Catholic Church concerning migrants and persons on the move: The Instruction Erga migrantes caritas Christi (“Charity of Christ towards the migrants”) was published by the Pontifical Council for the pastoral of Migrants and Persons in displacement on the 3rd of May 2004
(www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/migrants/documents/rc_pc_migrants_doc_20040514_erga-migrantes-caritas-christi_fr.html).
Of course, I will largely refer to this document while drawing the strong lines
of the teaching of the Church on this matter.
But, as you all know, what is called the Social
Doctrine of the Church, since pope Leon XIII and his encyclique Rerum
Novarum were not at the start pontifical documents. It is an inductive
step, sprouting from the base if I can say, the engagement of many christians
moved by dramatical human situations, documents of ecclesiastical movements,
prophetic opinions expressed by pastors and bishops, local initiatives bearing
fruit (prophets are the more prophetic when they articulate actions with
words), researches made by local churches defining, slowly, a more evangelical
attitude towards brothers and sisters particularly suffering. These spoken
opinions and gestures will slowly bring the universal magister to give
orientations towards, or to stimulate, the changes of mentalities.
These documents are numerous. I will refer as example to:
- The Congress of delegates of the Episcopal African Conferences
held in
- The annual encounter of the Pastoral
Directors for Migrants in Europe; the last one was held in Vienna in
mid-September 2008, it stressed of the importance of the prophetic part to be
played by the Church in this field (www.ccee.ch/index.php?PHPSESSID=fii1crgvljlgdlkvr4qecvpbp1&na=4,1,0,0,f,104160,0,0,)
- The acts of a “Convention for Pastoral
Debate" between the Churches of Western Africa, of Maghreb and of
- An
important Research Document issued by the French Episcopate and
entitled: “When a foreigner knocks on your door” (Episcopate Document of June
2004). You will find its resumé at the following address: www.eglisemigrations.org/ressources/10113/45/4242.pdf)
- On the
Internet site of the International Catholic Migration Commission
(www.icmc.net/e/index.htm), you will find numerous documents coming from
all continents… and a book published in French two years ago: “Churches,
Migrants and Refugees, 35 texts to understand”, (L’Atelier, 2006) and
expressing the stands of bishops the world over.
-
Specialized movements alert public opinion and publish leading
documents: CIMADE, a protestant edition accompanying and defending migrants and
asylum seekers since over 60 years (www.cimade.org), the Christians Immigrants
Network (www.reseau-chretien-immigres.org), JRS, Jesuit Service for
Refugees, a catholic organization at work in fifty countries and whose
mission consists to accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugees and of
displaced persons by force (www.jrs.net/home.php).
And then, each year, on the occasion of the
Migrant and Refugee World Day, the Pope publishes a message, often well in
advance so it can be worked upon, (www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/migration/index_fr.htm). The message for the Day of
January 2009 has been issued in August 2008… under a title that will not
surprise us who are in
1. Everything,
as usual, starts with the Lord’s words that have been chosen by MIAMSI as the
slogan of our encounter: “I was a stranger and you have sheltered me”
(Mt 25,35). At the closure of the Social Weeks 2006, the bishop of
5 Biblical figures are
constantly evoked to put faces on these referring points:
- Abraham, the father of the believers,
who receives the vocation of leaving his country to go to the land God will
show him (Gn 12,1-5),
it will be understood that not only the migrant, but his family
are expected to be welcomed. The right for familial grouping is founded
on the fact that Abraham has left with all his family. Often, reference is made
to this beautiful meditation on the letter to the Hebrews: ““By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called
to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went
out, not knowing where he was going to. By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise,
as in a foreign land …for he looked forward to the city that has foundations,
whose builder and maker is God. These all died in faith, not having received
what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar, and having
acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who
speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been
thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had
opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a
heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has
prepared them for a celestial city (Hb 11,8-16).” Believe me, to
hear this biblical passage during the celebration of an illegal migrant’s
funeral, died on the road, gives human density to these words that are too
often spiritualized.
-
Second figure: Moses and the Hebrews who has lived in foreign land,
under oppression, and whose desire of liberation and emigration is legitimated
by the Lord himself: “I have witnessed the suffering of my people in Egypt… and
I have come to liberate them from the hands of the Egyptians and help them to
go to a vast and good country” (Ex 3,7-8). This evocation of Moses is completed
by a passage in the Deuteronomy: “ When you will reach the land the Lord, your
God, is giving you, you will say: my father was a wandering Aramaic” (Dt
26,1…5), added to the prescriptions of the Leviticus: “ When a migrant will
settle at your place, in your country, you will not exploit him; you will treat
him like a local person, one of yours, and you will love him like yourself
because all of you have been migrants in the country of Egypt” (Lv 19,33-34).
- Third
figure: The Good Samaritan (Luke 10,29-37): He is evoked as early as the
third paragraph in the instruction Erga Migrantes: the engagement for
those who struggle for the rights of migrants “is a very special fruit of the
compassion of Jesus, the good Samaritan, provoked by the Holy Spirit,
everywhere in the heart of men of good will, and particularly within the
Church”. By the way, in the texts I have read, christians are invited to adopt
the attitude of the Good Samaritan on the roadside, who acts as the next of kin
of the immigrant on the side of the road, but the fact that he is himself a
stranger, and maybe an immigrant in
- Fourth
figure: a collective one, the crowd in the Apocalypse, walking towards
the holy city, the new Jerusalem descending from heaven, from God’s
side… the people of God plodding towards its land, the heavenly one, as already
evoked in the Letter to the Hebrews.
- Fifth
figure, the fundamental one: Jesus-Christ himself, with Mary, born in a
manger, and who, being a stranger, fled to Egypt with his family, assuming and
recapitulating in himself the fundamental experience of his people (cf. Mt
2,13ss). Born away from his home and arriving from outside his country (cf. Lk
2, 4-7), “he has dwelled among us” (Jn 1,11.14) and he has lived his public
life as an itinerant, traveling through “cities and villages” (cf. Lk, 13,22;
Mt 9,35). Resuscitated, and yet still a stranger, unknown, on the road to
Emmaus, he appears to two of his disciples who recognize him only when he
parted the bread (cf. Lk 24,35). The christians thus follow a vagabond who has
nowhere to rest his head (Mt 8,20; Lk 9,58) » From that moment, the follower of
Christ is called "disciple", the one who walks behind and
considers himself as passing through this world, because “we don’t have down
here a permanent city” (Hb 13,14). The first christian community has been
immediately aware of this, and we can read about it in the letter to Diognète, written
in 190 at
2. Rooted on these 5 figures, what are the
referring points
the Social Doctrine of the Church offers?
At first, if the Compendium does not mention migrations, the foundation
of the Social Doctrine quoted largely applies to it, when they enumerate:
-
The
equal dignity of all persons who are created to the image of God.
-
The
value of human rights and the call to fill the gap between the letter and the
spirit.
-
The
-
The
universal destination of wealth.
-
The
-
And
the pathway of charity.
More concretely, and I refer now to the instruction of "Erga
Migrantes", here are essential points stressed:
At the more fundamental level, the Vatican II
Council has ‘elaborated important leading lines inviting specially christians
to be acquainted with and to take the full dimension of the migratory phenomenon
(cf. GS 65 et 66), with the necessity of surpassing the inequalities linked to
socio-economic development (cf. GS 63) and to care for the real needs of the
person (cf. GS 84). The Council though acknowledges the right of the civil
authorities to regulate the migratory flux (cf. GS 87). The welcoming of the
foreigner is considered as inherent to the very nature of the Church and
testifies of its fidelity to the Scriptures (EC 21-22)
About these
guidelines, the Church documents give off 7 referring theological and
pastoral points (cf. EC 27):
1.
The person as central character: in
the migratory phenomenon, it is always concrete persons who migrate, suffer,
who hope, who search, and they are brothers and sisters to love.
2.
The defence of the rights of men and
women migrants and of their children.
3.
The clerical and missionary
dimensions of migrations: often migrants are christians who have received their
Faith in a particular Church, and who have something of this Church to share
with the Church welcoming them.
4.
The revaluation of the lay
apostolate, the value of cultures in the act of evangelizing.
5.
The protection and the valorizing of
minorities, even in the middle of the Church.
6.
The importance of intra and ad extra
ecclesial dialogue: in the manner of the Abidjan Colloquia that I mentioned:
the migrants call for the churches, Church movements to collaborate among
themselves, here and there. Is it not one of the dimensions of our General
Assembly?
7.
The specific contribution of
emigration to universal peace, because it weaves, whether we like it or not,
links between peoples, and even also, alliances, if only by marriage between
migrants and autochthones.
On these foundations, we will note some particular insistences:
- The Church encourages the
ratification of international juridical instruments that guaranty the
rights of migrants, of refugees and their families, in particular the
International Convention for the protection of the rights of all the working
migrants as well as their family – it came into force on the first of July
2003. The United Nations, more and more interdependent, have pulled down walls
to allow free circulation of information and capital, but not on the same scale
that of persons. So the foreign workers should not be considered like goods
or simple labour force, and should not thus be treated like any
other factor of production. All migrants benefits of fundamental and
inalienable rights that must always be respected. The contribution of
migrants to the economy of the dwelling country is linked with the possibility
they have, through their work, to make use of their intelligence and their
capacities. Confronted to this world phenomenon, strictly national policies are
of little use, and purely restrictive policies are still less efficient and
have still more negative effects, with the risk of increasing the clandestine
entries as well as promoting the activities of criminal organizations. (EC 8)
- The
phenomenon of migration provokes a real ethical question, that of the search
for a new international economic order, with, as prospect, the universal
common good, and aiming at a more equitable repartition of the riches of the
earth, which would contribute, in a non negligible part, to reduce and
moderate, in a significant manner, a large amount of the fluxes of populations
in difficulty. (EC 9). There is the need for a policy guarantying and
respecting the rights of all the migrants, while avoiding eventual
discriminations. (EC
30)
- As far as christians are
concerned, they must promote a real welcoming culture, in answer to
The « foreign
person » is the messenger of God; he arrives in surprise and breaks the
regularity and the routine of daily life, in bringing close the one who is far
away. In the “strangers”, the Church sees Christ who “sets up his tent
among us” (cf. Jn 1,14) and who “knocks at our door” (cf. Ap 3,20). This
meeting – made of attention, of welcoming, of sharing, of solidarity, of
protection of the migrant’s rights and of evangelizing output – is the
reflection of the solicitude of the Church, who perceives in them authentic
values and considers them as an important human richness.
In spite of failures,
christians, sensitized to the phenomenon of mobility, are expected to be more
and more “signs of fraternity and communion in the world, practicing, in the
ethic of the encounter, respect for the differences and solidarity. And the
migrants “offer to the Church an opportunity to prove its catholicity, by not
only welcoming the different ethnies, but above all realizing their communion.
Within the Church, ethnical and cultural pluralism do not constitute a
provisional situation to be tolerated, it is its proper structural dimension.
The unity of the Church does not sprout from a common origin or language, but
from the Spirit of Pentecost who, uniting, as one People, persons of different
languages and nations, conferring, to all, faith in one and same Lord and
calling to all men to share the same hope” (Jean-Paul II, Message for the
Migrants’ Day - 1988).
The Social Doctrine of the Church, as we have said, is of inductive
nature; it searches, before the event, to recognize the signs of time and to
reveal the calls of the Spirit. We are in
On the 30th of August, the pope stated from Castel Gandolfo:
“It is quite frequent that the crossing of the
He greatly approves of the engagement of the “regional, national and international instances involved in the question of irregular migrations”, but sends an urgent call to the countries of origin of the migrants who “must give proof of their sense of responsibility, not only because it is their own citizens who are involved, but expressly to eradicate the causes of irregular migrations. They must also kill in the egg all the forms of criminality linked to these situations.”
Benedict the XVIth has required of the
countries receiving migrants that they “commonly develop initiatives and
structures more and more adapted to the needs of the irregular migrants”. He
encourages the sensitizing to “the value of life representing a unique, always
precious possession, to be preserved in respect of the huge risks to which are
exposed these persons in their quest to improve their conditions of life, and
to the right of laws that is the duty of all.”
“As Father of all, I deeply feel it is my duty
to call the attention of all on this problem and to make an appeal to the
generous collaboration of personal individuals and institutions to face these
situations and to find solutions”, has concluded the pope.
Are we not solicited, so that our Assembly of Malta, the fruit of our work during the last Four years, adds another chapter to the Social Doctrine of the Church, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit?
October 2008