PRESENTATION OF POPE'S MESSAGE FOR WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS

VATICAN CITY, OCT 18, 2001 (VIS) - This morning at 11:30 in the Holy See Press Office, Archbishop Stephen Fumio Hamao presented the Pope's Message for the 2002 World Day of Migrants and Refugees, on the theme "Migrations and Inter-religious Dialogue." Joining the president of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Ministry for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples were Fr. Angelo Negrini, an official at the council, and Msgr. Felix Anthony Machado, under-secretary of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue.

Archbishop Hamao said that "a little more than a month after the tragic events in New York and Washington, one could ask if the theme chosen this year is not a bit risky. To speak of migrations at a time when many nations are reviewing their laws in this regard, perhaps evaluating the weight to be given to religions professed by the potential migrants and refugees, and are reinforcing measures at borders to deny terrorists the possibility to arrive on their national soil, could seem like putting salt on a wound."

He said he thought the theme, however, "is more current than ever, precisely to answer the call for peace that is on the lips and in the hearts of innocent people. ... In fact, there is need for dialogue and reciprocal tolerance within every country among those who profess the religion of the majority and those who belong to minorities, frequently made up of migrants, who follow diverse religions."

Fr. Negrini stated that "the great novelty" of the Message is "the overcoming of an 'ideological' vision of faith, of a theological dialectic to reach a dialogue seen above all as an external gift, practical and operating in charity. This problem does not occur with regards to Jews ... whom the Pope calls 'our elder brothers'. Rather it occurs more urgently with regards to Muslims, ever more numerous in industrialized countries."

"The problem with the encounter with Islam," he added, "as with all other religions, thus becomes a personal problem, a problem of being formed to be authentic Christians, not to undertake other crusades or holy wars, but to set up a sincere meeting between adult believers in the faith who are convinced that pluralism does not come from the homologation of different truths of faith, much less of preconceived notions about others' beliefs but from facing them."

Graphs depicting the worldwide migrant and refugee numbers were distributed during the press conference today. As of 1997, the last available year for statistics, there were 130 million migrants, representing 2.3 percent of the world population: 55 percent of these are in developing countries and the remaining 45 percent in highly developed countries. There are no reliable statistics about illegal immigrants.

As of 1990, the last year in which official statistics were available, the regions where the percentage of immigrants is higher in relation to the resident populace are North America 8.6 percent) Western Europe (6.1) and Oceania (18.4).

Refugees are believed to number upwards of 50 million worldwide, and most often are victims of internal exoduses such as wars and natural disasters.

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