OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
“Peace to all people and to all nations on earth! Peace, which the angels proclaimed to the shepherds on Christmas night, is a profound aspiration for everyone, for each individual and all peoples, and especially for those who most keenly suffer its absence.” (Pope Francis, “Message for World Peace,” Jan. 1, 2018)
As we celebrate the birth of our Lord and ask for blessings of peace in the New Year, Pope Francis reminds us to also keep constantly in our thoughts, prayers and actions the 250 million migrants worldwide, of whom 22.5 million are refugees. Our Holy Father’s New Year’s Eve message is titled “Migrants and Refugees: Men and Women in Search of Peace” and begins by quoting his beloved predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who described migrants and refugees as “men and women, children, young and elderly people, who are searching for somewhere to live in peace. In order to find that peace, they are willing to risk their lives on a journey that is often long and perilous, to endure hardships and suffering, and to encounter fences and walls built to keep them far from their goal.”
Pope Francis points out that the Christmas message of the angels — “Peace to all of good will” — echoes the hospitality message and experience of angels welcomed in the Old Testament. “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing, some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”
Our Holy Father goes on to say, “The Bible teaches that God ‘loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.’” Also, the Gospel of Luke tells how the Holy Family were migrants in their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and then refugees as they fled to Egypt.
On Jan. 14, the World Day for Migrants and Refugees, the pope will celebrate a special Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica with vulnerable people on the move from around the world. On that day he will focus on sharing the journey of migrants and refugees as a special encounter with God, reminding us that Jesus said, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Specifically, these January papal messages ask us to welcome, protect, promote and integrate migrants and refugees by “expanding legal pathways for entry and no longer pushing migrants and displaced people toward countries where they face persecution and violence.”
Recently, Pope Francis traveled to Myanmar and Bangladesh to draw world attention to the plight of migrants and refugees. Pope Francis is calling all to promote and reinforce the rights of migrants and refugees through the United Nations. These efforts are being backed by all the bishop conferences around the world. As a part of that effort, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has also called for extending temporary protected status in the United States for migrants and refugees from Haiti, Honduras and El Salvador and protection for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, youth.
Here in Hawaii, our diocese is joining Catholic Relief Services in following the pope’s call to Share the Journey through Rice Bowl funding for legal services for migrants and refugees. This will include CLINIC, a legal aid program of the USCCB, plus a citizenship fair to help the 55,000 legal permanent residents in Hawaii become U.S. citizens. At the 2018 Red Mass Jan. 16 in the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa, Catholic Charities Hawaii chief executive officer Terry Walsh will speak about Share the Journey.
So as we begin a new year, we are all invited to accompany “men and women in search of peace” and in so doing, show “hospitality to angels without even knowing it!” For more information about how you can be part of these efforts of hospitality and peace, please visit the Office for Social Ministry website www.officeforsocialministry.org.
Also check out the pope’s message and a wonderful video on migrants and refugees through the ages at https://migrants-refugees.va/message-holiness-pope-francis.
Mahalo and Hauoli Makahiki Hou,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
