Photo: HONU Project
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
“The truth however is that we are all in the same boat and called to work together so that there will be no more walls that separate us, no longer others, but only a single ‘we’, encompassing all of humanity.” (Pope Francis, Message for 2021 World Day of Migrants and Refugees)
When Pope Francis this month released his message for the 2021 World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR), he called on everyone to build a better world embodying the theme “toward an ever wider ‘we.’”
“I also make this appeal to journey together toward an ever wider ‘we’ to all men and women, for the sake of renewing the human family, building together a future of justice and peace, and ensuring that no one is left behind,” the Holy Father said.
He urged us to go beyond our comfort zones to help those on the margins in all communities: “In our day, the church is called to go out into the streets of every existential periphery in order to heal wounds and to seek out the straying, without prejudice or fear, without proselytizing, but ready to widen her tent to embrace everyone.”
In his WDMR message, Pope Francis focused on marginalized migrants and refugees worldwide, including unaccompanied minors and families seeking asylum at U.S. borders. “Today’s migration movements offer an opportunity for us to overcome our fears and let ourselves be enriched by the diversity of each person’s gifts. Then, if we so desire, we can transform borders into privileged places of encounter, where the miracle of an ever wider ‘we’ can come about.”
Here in Hawaii, people are coming together to reach out to vulnerable persons through a collaborative effort known as HONU, which stands for Homeless Outreach and Navigation for Unsheltered Persons Program. HONU is a short-term mobile homeless shelter organized by public, private and social service agencies such as the Institute for Human Services (IHS). Using inflatable tents, the program provides a temporary safe haven for homeless persons in need of shelter, showers, food, treatment and even vaccines.
HONU has already been to Waipahu, the Old Stadium Park and is currently at Keehi Lagoon near the airport. A new Wahiawa-Whitmore HONU Project has just begun with Achieve Zero (formerly Aiea Bridge), a primary homeless service provider in the area. It is offering on-site support together with the Honolulu Police Department and the City’s Department of Community Services and Department of Housing. A team of volunteers from two nearby Catholic parishes, Our Lady of Sorrows in Wahiawa and St. John Apostle and Evangelist in Mililani, have stepped up to provide daily meals for the temporarily homeless participants.
These are only a few examples of how the Gospel call and these words of the latest papal encyclical “Fratelli Tutti” can be put into action. “We are called to dream together, fearlessly, as a single human family, as companions on the same journey, as sons and daughters of the same earth that is our common home, sisters and brothers all.”
For more on the 2021 World Day of Migrants and Refugees and “toward an ever wider ‘we’” efforts worldwide, as well as information on compassionate community collaborations such as the Wahiawa-Whitmore HONU Project, please visit www.migrants-refugees.va and www.officeforsocialministry.org where this 2021 WDMR prayer is found: “Holy, beloved Father, your Son Jesus taught us that there is great rejoicing in heaven whenever someone lost is found, whenever someone excluded, rejected or discarded is gathered into our ‘we,’ which thus becomes ever wider. We ask you to grant the followers of Jesus, and all people of good will, the grace to do your will on earth. Bless each act of welcome and outreach that draws those in exile into the ‘we’ of community and of the Church, so that our earth may truly become what you yourself created it to be: the common home of all our brothers and sisters. Amen.”
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
