Bishop Guido Charbonneau of Honduras looks at notes written by children in detention camps during a break June 1, 2021, at Mundelein Seminary . (CNS photo/Rhina Guidos)
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
We need to find a path forward that is rooted in solidarity and fraternity and that respects the rights and dignity of every migrant as a child of God made in his image.” (Archbishop Jose Gomez, president of the the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), June 2, 2021)
On June 1 and 2, 20 bishops from the United States, Mexico and Central America came together at Mundelein Seminary outside of Chicago for an “emergency meeting” addressing “A Wider We — Planning a Catholic Response to People on the Move.”
The bishops met with 20 Catholic organizations that work with migrants and refugees to craft a Catholic response to the challenges of increased immigration. The participants hoped to understand more deeply why migrants leave their home countries so that the Catholic Church can better accompany and advocate with them.
Bishop Mario Dorsonville, the chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, shared how, in a border clinic, he met a migrant teen named Rosa whose legs were covered with thorns. She tearfully told him that after crossing the desert full of spiny cactus to reach the border, the thorns in her legs were not nearly as painful as those piercing her heart from being forced to leave her grandmother in Honduras because of violent gang recruitment of youth in their community.
Bishop Dorsonville said all the countries in the Americas share the same dream: that their youth will be allowed to build a better future for their families in their homelands and not be forced, by violence, natural disaster or poverty, to migrate.
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, said that he celebrates Mass on weekends in his border diocese at a center where thousands of unaccompanied migrant minors are detained. There, children are constantly grabbing his arms, desperate for the human touch because of the trauma they carry from their journey and from the situations they were forced to flee. Bishop Seitz brought dozens of notes from these kids pleading for a chance to be reunited with their relatives.
New Jersey Cardinal Joseph Tobin, himself from a migrant family, said it was imperative to remember that every migrant has a face and a story.
Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich said that migrants represent a valuable legacy not a limiting liability.
Guatemala’s Cardinal Alvaro Ramazzini, who was recovering from COVID-19, underscored the economic disparities and environmental crises that drive men, women and children from their homelands. He also pointed out the potential of migrants to contribute their gifts to the building of a better future for the whole region.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, the undersecretary of the Vatican Migrants and Refugee Section, talked to the gathering via Zoom on “The Vision of Pope Francis and the Spirituality of a Church Without Borders.” He opened the meeting with a focus on the humanity and hope of people on the move.
“Migration is not first a problem to be managed, or a phenomenon to be feared,” he said, “but a sign of relationships to be established, reconciled, healed, and a possibility for mutual transformation, right relationship with the earth, and the construction of a world on the basis of social friendship and universal human fraternity.”
“While borders need to be managed, they don’t have to be destructive but can be places of encounter and exchange and transition to the better,” he said
Cardinal Czerny shared this passage by Pope Francis about the basic human challenge and hope of migrants: “Many are being devoured in conditions that make it impossible to survive. Forced to abandon fields and shorelines, homes and villages, people flee in haste carrying just a few souvenirs and treasures, scraps of their culture and heritage. They set out in hope, meaning to restart their lives in a place of safety. Those driven from their homes by the climate crisis need to be welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated. They want to start over. To create a new future for their children, they need to be allowed to do so, and to be helped. Welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating are all verbs of helpful action. Let us remove, those boulders that block the way of the displaced, what represses and sidelines them, prevents them from working and going to school, whatever renders them invisible and denies their dignity.”
Cardinal Czerny ended his reflection by saying: “Let us rejoice in the opportunity, as the church along the great northward corridor through the upper Americas struggles to show herself both custodian and especially promoter of a unifying vision of humanity.”
Our next “Talk story” will share more from this special meeting of Catholic bishops and organizations working with migrants and refugees, including practical actions they proposed for the church’s pastoral activity and advocacy of national and international policies.
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