by Corrado De Robertis
Vol. XVI
No. 3
MARCH 2004
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The interconnected nature of our world would prompt us to think that today it would be easy to move to, and feel at home in, any point we may find ourselves arriving at. Yet reality presents us with quite a different realization, as migration for many results in tragedy rather than the fulfillment of their hope of a better future.
The Church can have a very distinctive voice in today’s world, becoming the place where no one may feel a stranger, a model of a world where differences have been brought together and exist in harmony with no room for rejection.
In fact, though, we have to admit that today in many parts of the world the ‘outsider’ is not welcome and a definite culture of exclusion is very much affecting many western societies. Now more than before with the excuse of an alleged ‘war on terror’ doors are being shut and bolted to many migrants, and incidents of shameful exploitation that play on the hope and desperation of many migrants are not a few.
Indeed it is a human right to migrate as no one can be forced to live in misery or in a degrading situation which is beyond their control. The Church therefore may not remain silent - whether at home or in countries where migrants arrive - but must show, through concrete pastoral planning, that in a civilized society there is no room for unwelcoming attitudes and discrimination. The Church must intervene decisively against governments that pass xenophobic and discriminatory laws against migrants and foreigners in general, or aim at exploiting them even further.
Filipinos in a special way are a migrant population, with as many as eight million Filipinos working abroad, and like most migrants they do suffer discrimination, oppression and injustice of many sorts, despite the enormous contribution they give to the economies of their own country, and above all of the countries where they work. Indeed, their contribution goes well beyond economic terms (see this month’s WM Special, page 22).
Migrants do push us to see the enriching value of differences - as Pope John Paul affirms in his message (pages 30 – 32) - by their very presence they do encourage people to dialogue with other cultures, they can definitely be authors of peace among nations. This is so very essential in a world where fear, prejudice, exclusion and terror seem to be gaining ground in the search for a ‘national security’ that will never be achievable while most basic securities: food, water, shelter, education… are systematically denied to an ever greater number of people in the world.<WM
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Fr Corrado De Robertis
Comboni Mission Center
7885 Segundo Mendoza St.
Sucat,
1715 Parañaque City, MM
Philippines.
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