
Vatican City, Sep 27, 2017 / 12:18 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Wednesday announced a new initiative encouraging a “culture of encounter” and efforts to warmly welcome immigrants and refugees.
Sponsored by the global Catholic charities network Caritas Internationalis, the “Share the Journey” initiative is a two-year campaign dedicated to promoting both awareness and action on behalf of migrants and refugees, and helping them build connections with local communities.
“Don’t be afraid of sharing the journey. Don’t be afraid of sharing hope,” Pope Francis said during his weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square Sept. 27.
According to Caritas, the project was launched as a response to Pope Francis’ frequent call for a “culture of encounter.”
The project also aims to shed light on both the challenges and effects of migration at every stage of the journey in order to promote a “shift in thinking” on the issue. It will have the support of the ACT Alliance, which is a network of 145 Christian agencies and a variety of other religious congregations and civil society groups worldwide.
As part of the project, Caritas will launch various action-based initiatives in the communities in which they are present throughout the world.
.@CardinalChito w/Caritas Internationalis at Vatican Press Office to launch #ShareJourney initiative. Learn more: https://t.co/GN5af8cdie pic.twitter.com/tPlnI1Hjx1
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) September 27, 2017
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, president of Caritas Internationalis, said he himself is an example of what young migrants can offer if given the opportunity.
“Whenever I hear news about the restrictions or even some moves that might affect children, minors (who are) migrants, I remember my grandfather, my maternal grandfather,” Cardinal Tagle told CNA.
“He was born in China and his mother was widowed, and she in her desperation didn’t know how to raise her child up into a decent life, so I suppose with a heavy heart, she decided to give away the child to an uncle, who was trying to do some trade in the Philippines.”
Cardinal Tagle explained that his grandfather never went back to China, but “thanks to people who received him, helped him, educated him, he was able to contribute to society.”
In addition to his work, “he was able to contribute a priest, a bishop, in my person,” Cardinal Tagle said. “So watch out. The children that we might be rejecting might be giving valuable contributions to society.”
The cardinal’s comments were made in reference to rising tensions surrounding the issue of migration in the U.S., where controversy has arisen over President Donald Trump’s travel ban, proposed border wall, and recent announcement of the phasing out of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which has benefited hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as minors.
In a press conference announcing the “Share the Journey” initiative, Cardinal Tagle said world leaders should remember that “we are all migrants. Nobody can claim to be a non-migrant, we are all passing in this world.”
With Cardinal Luis Tagle, pres of @iamCARITAS, for presentation of new “Share the Journey” project 4 #migrants & refugees pic.twitter.com/PNiJXEprfz
— Elise Harris (@eharris_it) September 27, 2017
“Nobody is a permanent resident,” and no one can claim to “own the space they occupy,” he said, voicing his hope that there would be a universal “conversion of mind” on the issue.
Acknowledging the fear that some might feel at having foreigners enter their country, the cardinal said these fears often dissipate when people take the time to sit with immigrants and listen to their stories. “You will see that they are like you and me,” he said.
Recalling how his grandfather came to the Philippines as a “poor boy from China,” he said, “who would have thought he would have a cardinal for a grandson?”
Present alongside Cardinal Tagle at the press conference was Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, along the U.S. border with Mexico, as well as the director of Caritas Ethiopia, Bekele Moges, and three young migrants from Africa.
The migrants were Yancuba Darboe from Gambia, 21; Amadou Darboe from Senegal, 20; and Berete Ibrahima from Guinea, 23. Each of them left their homes due to poverty or a lack of opportunities and endured harsh conditions, including torture at the hands of traffickers, before eventually arriving in Italy and finding a fresh start.
In comments to CNA, Sr. Pimentel stressed the importance of getting to know migrants personally.
Meeting and speaking with migrants face-to-face is “so important,” she said, “because that’s what causes the transformation in us.”
Sr. Pimentel recalled the story of a woman who had come to visit one of the centers operated by Catholic Charities in Rio Grande Valley. The woman was “one hundred percent against” their work, believing that migrants shouldn’t be allowed into the country.
In response, the sister gave the woman a tour, and “took her to visit the families and the children and showed her the reality, and she met them personally.”
When the visit ended, the woman’s whole perspective had changed, and she encouraged Sr. Pimentel to continue the work they were doing. The woman’s husband even called the center later to express his shock at the change in his wife’s attitude toward the issue.
“So I believe if somebody can be transformed so fast because of the fact that they saw that mother, that infant, that child (and) we have it in our hearts to reach out to those we find suffering, we will help that person that needs our help,” she said.
Sr. Pimentel described current immigrant policy in the U.S. as “harsh.”
“All the administrations, even the previous administration, were very harsh in deporting a lot of the immigrants and making those detention centers for family units,” she said, adding that in her view, “it’s so unjust and so unfair for a family with children, with infants, to be placed in detention facilities.”
“Just like the previous administration, this administration is doing the same and probably harsher,” she said, stressing that placing families in such centers is “not humane,” because they are essentially being put “into prisons.”
Whether you call it a detention center or even a “child care center,” Sr. Pimentel said, the reality is that “they really are prisons and it’s very depressing, so children should not be in those conditions.”
Instead, the sister said there should be an alternative available where families are allowed to stay together with someone to help them in the immigration process while authorities “figure out whether they have a reason to be in the United States or not, but not keep them for months in facilities that are so depressing and inhumane.”
Sr. Pimentel voiced hope that the new Caritas campaign would help people to truly understand the plight of migrants and push for “laws in our countries that respect the dignity and human life of people.”
The process of breaking the stigma surrounding incoming migrants starts with individuals and the process of encounter, she reiterated.
“Find that immigrant, just one, find out who they are,” she said. “Find out why they left their country and try to understand that, try to put yourself in their shoes and see if that helps you understand better why an immigrant has to go through what they do and what should be your responsibility and response to that reality.”
[…]
We read: “The cardinal said that as an Augustinian, Pope Leo has ‘a solid foundation in the tradition and spirituality of St. Augustine’.” From St. Augustine–as with individuals and now with parts of the Church itself, the double life:
“…it is no monstrous thing partly to will a thing and partly not to will it, but a sickness of the mind [!]. Although it is supported by truth, it does not wholly rise up, since it is heavily encumbered by habit. Therefore there are two wills, since one of them is not complete, and what is lacking in one of them is present in the other” (Confessions, Bk. 8, Ch. 9:21).
Deeper than the misnomers of “left”and “right.”
The use of the terms “left” and “right”, while sometimes used as political terms cannot be used when the reference point is the fact that God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, The Perfect Divine Eternal Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Who Proceeds From Both The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage. To deny that The Blessed Trinity Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, is apostasy.
Christ’s Teaching on the Sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception to the moment of death, and the Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, and thus sexual morality, is not up for debate.
Perfect Divine Eternal Love does not divide, it multiplies, as in The Miracle Of The Loaves and Fishes.
We read: “The cardinal said that as an Augustinian, Pope Leo has ‘a solid foundation in the tradition and spirituality of St. Augustine’.”
From St. Augustine, about the double life and individuals and now parts of the Church as a whole, both:
“…it is no monstrous thing partly to will a thing and partly not to will it, but a sickness of the mind [!]. Although it is supported by truth, it does not wholly rise up, since it is heavily encumbered by habit. Therefore there are two wills, since one of them is not complete, and what is lacking in one of them is present in the other” (Confessions, Bk. 8, Ch. 9:21).
Deeper than the political misnomers of “left” or “right.”
Years ago, in 1995, we attended a Mass in London. It was in English but very bland. Like a grade school play. We then attended a Mass in Germany. It was in Latin or German and we could understand the clarity of the complete Mass. I had been raised in USA serving as an Alter Boy in the Latin Mass, so I understood it and enjoyed it. I think I would still prefer the Latin Mass.
My neighbor attended a friend’s Catholic funeral a few years ago, along with several of the deceased’s local friends. One of them, who was raised Catholic, turned to the my neighbor on the way out and remarked, “That is not the Catholic church that I grew up in.”
When you ‘water down the brand,’ you give people an excuse to jump ship, further evidence that the Eucharist is irrelevant to many.
Patrick, unfortunately with all the Bergoglian bishops now in office, the closest anyone can get to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass would be any Mass said by the Ordinariate Rite. It’s said “ad orientem”, prayed respectfully and prayerfully as if offering an unbloody re-presentation of Christ’s Holy Sacrifice on the Cross (which the Mass is).
DR;
You give the impression that it is virtually impossible to find a TLM.
I disagree – Google ‘Latin Mass’ and take it from there. It might be difficult to reach it but the sacrifice is well worth it. Here in Maine I have met people at the Latin Mass in Lewiston who make a round trip of up to 200 or more miles to reach the Mass and they don’t mind it at all – it can be done and, as I have already said – the sacrifice is well worth it.
My dear Diogenes, don’t broad-brush these bishops; many are very good men who were picked by our Pope Leo!
“These issues have divided the Church because, at a certain point, it became unclear what is right.” That point would be the moment one denies God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity , In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, ipso fact separating oneself from Christ and His One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church and becoming a part of The Great Apostasy.
The Truth is the truth, it is neither left nor right. Let’s stick with the Truth.
I would like to hope for great things from this new Pontificate: crystal clarity in teaching doctrine; bold proclamation of the centrality of Christ, the Redeemer; settling doubts on “synodality”, the synod of bishops, and the fundamental role of the hierarchy established by Christ, etc.
But there remains a nagging doubt that Pope Leo will be sufficiently brave enough to resist the radical leftest juggernaut that has been in control of the Vatican, the Church and Church policy for the past dozen years.
Lord have mercy!
I think I get why Cardinal Goh was on some papabile lists.
One to watch, I’d say.
God, The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Complementary Divine Eternal Love, The Most Holy Blessed Trinity, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Truth Of Perfect Divine Eternal Love. Love, which is always rightly ordered to the inherent personal and relational Dignity of the persons existing in a relationship of Love, is devoid of every form of lust. Let no one deceive you, the end goal of the modernist, the atheist materialistic overpopulation alarmist globalist, is the objectification of the human person.
Pope Benedict XVI warned us :
“When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of his being. The defence of the family is about man himself. And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears. Whoever defends God is defending man.” – Pope Benedict’s Christmas Address 2012
There will not be clarity in Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic , and Apostolic Church until the counterfeit church is charitably anathema by a True Vicar of Christ , and those Faithful Bishops who affirm The Unity Of The Holy Ghost , and thus the fact that “it is not possible to have Sacramental Communion without Ecclesiastical Communion”, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost ; For It Is Through Christ, With Christ, And In Christ, Oh God Almighty Father, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), The Perfect Divine Eternal Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Who Proceeds From Both The Father And His Only Son, In The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Divine Eternal Love, That Is The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us; but that they may be manifest, that they are not all of us.
20 But you have the unction from the Holy One, and know all things.
Read full chapter
“Behold your Mother.” – Christ On The Cross
https://catholicism.org/heavens-icon.html
A Bridge that denies The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, The Perfect Divine Eternal Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Who Proceeds From Both The Father And His Only Begotten Son, is a bridge to Apostasy.
Prayers that Pope Leo XIV, is a True Vicar of Christ, validly elected by the minority of Cardinals who remain in communion with The Body of Christ, and thus Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic , And Apostolic Church, who desire to Render onto God what belongs to God, and thus whose competence it is to elect a True Vicar of Christ, will restore the Papacy by a charitable anathema of the counterfeit church with its counterfeit magisterium, who are attempting to cause chaos and confusion , which is not of The Holy Ghost, by attempting to subsist within The Body of Christ while creating a god in their own image, a god who, by denying The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, denies The Divinity of The Most Holy Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, And Holy Ghost.
“Penance, Penance, Penance.”
https://catholicism.org/heavens-icon.html
“If we are not clear about what the Church teaches, it is very difficult to work together in unity…. there has been an internal division on certain issues such as marriage, LGBTQ+ rights, and transgender rights. These issues have divided the Church because, at a certain point, it became unclear what is right.”
I strongly disagree!
It has always been clear what is right in Catholic theology regarding “certain issues such as marriage, LGBTQ+ rights and transgender rights.” The problem is not that we don’t know what is right. The problem is that there are those in high places within the Church who do not want to accept what is right. They want to spread doubt and confusion in moral theology in order to gain acceptance for their sinful practices.