ADEQUATE PASTORAL CARE FOR MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES

VATICAN CITY, 10 JAN 2012 (VIS) - The latest edition of the magazine "Migranti Press" contains an article by Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio, president of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, for the forthcoming World Day of Migrants and Refugees. The Day is to be celebrated on Sunday 15 January under the theme: "Migrations and New Evangelisation".

  Archbishop Veglio highlights the fact that the phenomenon of migration, which involves many different individuals and peoples with their various social, cultural and religious characteristics, is "a process which opens unique opportunities for evangelisation. It offers Christian communities the chance to bear witness to Jesus Christ, especially through respectful dialogue and the concrete witness of solidarity. Migrants can also reawaken drowsy Christian consciences, calling people to a more coherent Christian life".

  For this reason the Holy Father's Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees "invites us to ensure that migrants are given adequate pastoral care. Thus they may remain firm in their faith, coherent in their Christian life and powerful witnesses of the Gospel, in order to become authentic announcers of the evangelical 'kerygma'".

  Referring to the Pope's Message, Archbishop Veglio notes that "the mass media, because of the immediate impact they have on public opinion, must seriously undertake to supply correct and ample information, avoiding demagogic terminology which is offensive to the image of forced migrants. The contribution of the media is necessary in order to make society aware of new situations, and of the real violations of refugees' rights".
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