MESSAGE FOR WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES

VATICAN CITY, DEC 6, 1999 (VIS) - Made public today was a message from the Pope for the 76th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which will be held during 2000.

The Pope writes that during the Jubilee, pilgrims "will learn to open their hearts to everyone, especially to those who are different: the guest, the stranger, the immigrant, the refugee, those who profess another religion, the non-believer."

Referring to the phenomenon of globalization, John Paul II recalled that "it accelerates the flow of capital and the exchange of goods and services between people, and inevitably has an influence on human mobility."

"Nonetheless," he adds, "globalization produces new rifts. Within the framework of a liberalism that is not adequately checked, the chasm between 'emerging' States and those States which are 'losing out' grows deeper. The former have at their disposal both capital and technology, ... while the latter do not have easy access to the resources necessary for adequate human development." The Pope recalls what he wrote in his message for World Youth Day 1998: "The challenge of our times is to guarantee globalization in solidarity, globalization without marginalization."

"Each day," he continues, "thousands of people face dramatic risks in order to escape from a life without a future. Unfortunately, the realty they find in the nations to which they flee often gives rise to further delusions." Furthermore, States are tending to "tighten their borders" and another problem that must be addressed is that of illegal immigrants, "victims of organized crime and unscrupulous entrepreneurs."

Returning to the subject of globalization, the Pope underlined that this process "could represent an opportunity, if cultural differences are welcomed as an opportunity for meeting and dialogue, and if the unequal distribution of the world's resources provokes a new awareness of the required solidarity."

"In this Jubilee year ... the invitation to hospitality is current and urgent. How can the baptized accept Christ if they close the door to the stranger who appears before them?"

The figure of the exile, the refugee, the deportee, the illegal immigrant, the emigrant in all societies requires from believers a "change of mentality and of life, ... Such conversion surely includes, in its highest and most demanding motivation, the effective recognition of the rights of migrants."

"Working for the unity of the human family," the Holy Father concludes, "means committing oneself to refusing all discrimination, whether based on race, culture or religion, as being contrary to God's design."

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