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.”
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About appealing to “fraternity beyond the Christian world” and “an authentic understanding of God as Father,” this relationship and concept and word (!) does not show up in the “uncreated” Qur’an which dismisses the Triune One and the Incarnation as polytheism. How to dialogue with those who live in an alternative universe?
Peter, perhaps the Pope could follow in the footsteps of St.Francis of when he engaged in dialogue with Muslim leaders in Egypt in 1219. Francis approached them as fellow humans and respected their fidelity to their beliefs. His humility and willingness to engage in friendly dialogue so impressed them that they entertains him and granted him safe passage back to the Crusaders who were engaged in combat against them. Francis respected their piety, however misplaced, and used it as an example for his brothers. There is an old saying that says: there is not a human alive that we can’t learn from; and I think this is very true. The Pope has a unique opportunity to live Christ before and with leaders of other religions, and I think it is right for him to do so. You can dialogue with out compromising your own beliefs, and you can respect the integrity of those you disagree with.
Of course, I agree one on one, nevertheless Islam—as a religion—is the negation of Christianity. Arianism on steroids.
James Connor: Sentimentality is comforting, but When has “dialogue” ever occurred across billions of people?
Good points, Mr. Connor. Thank you.
You pose the existential question that has yet to be answered. State-sponsored radical Islam is the greatest threat to world peace.
“You pose the existential question that has yet to be answered. State-sponsored radical Islam is the greatest threat to world peace.”
Perhaps, but the greatest threat to our Salvation, is The Sin Against The Holy Ghost , due to a hardened heart at the moment of our death, that in denying The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Who Is The Spirit Of Perfect Divine Eternal Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, denies The Divinity Of The Most Holy Blessed Trinity, while denying The Source Of God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy , Salvational Love.
“Do not let your Hearts be hardened!”
“Penance, Penance, Penance” At the heart of Liberty Is Christ, “4For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come…”, to not believe that Christ’s Sacrifice On The Cross will lead us to Salvation, but we must desire forgiveness for our sins, and accept Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy; believe in The Power And The Glory Of Salvation Love, and rejoice in the fact that No Greater Love Is There Than This, To Desire Salvation For One’s Beloved.
“Hail The Cross, Our Only Hope.”
“Blessed are they who are Called to The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb.”
“For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.”
“Behold your Mother.” – Christ On The Cross
Dear Blessed Mother Mary, Mirror of Justice And Destroyer Of All Heresy, Who Through Your Fiat, Affirmed The Filioque, and thus the fact that There Is Only One Son Of God, One Word Of God Made Flesh, One Lamb Of God Who Can Taketh Away The Sins Of The World, Our Only Savior, Jesus The Christ, thus there can only be, One Spirit Of Perfect Divine Eternal Complementary Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, Who Must Proceed From Both The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, In The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Divine Eternal Complementary Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity (Filioque), hear our Prayer that your Immaculate Heart Will Triumph soon for the sake of Christ, His Church, all who will come to believe, and all our beloved prodigal sons and daughters, who, hopefully, will return to The One Body Of Christ, which exists From The Father, Through, With, And In His Only Son, Jesus The Christ, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque) Amen.
Our Lady Of Fatima, Blessed Mother Mary , Full Of Grace , Please Intercede For Us🙏✝️💕🌹
The Jews don’t believe in the Trinity either.
This is true. Muslims, Christians,and Jews worship the God of Abraham but we each have different understandings of Him.
Because of their monotheistic religion, Muslims and Jews have a lot more in common with each other than with Catholics.
Not “because they are ‘monotheistic'” but, instead, this:
“The responses of the Old Testament and a fortiori of Islam (which remains essentially in the enclosure of the religion of Israel) are incapable of giving a satisfactory answer to the question of why Yahweh, why Allah, created a world of which he did not have need in order to be God. Only the fact is affirmed in the two religions, not the why. The Christian response is contained in these two fundamental dogmas: that of the Trinity and that of the Incarnation” (Hans Urs von Balthasar).
We believe in one God , too. Three persons in One God
We’re all monotheists. Different understandings about Him though.
Of course, but except for a few radicals they and we do accept and respect each other. We have each had a type of renewal. Islam has yet to have a renewal. Studying history and monitoring how certain Islamic countries continue to govern ought to help us be realistic. Reading the Koran might help also! Our Pope is correct and possibly prophetic.
It is important to note that Division is not of The Holy Ghost, thus it is what divides other religious denominations from Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, The Spirit Of Perfect Divine Eternal Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, Who Must Proceed From Both The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, In The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Divine Eternal Love, The Most Holy Blessed Trinity, that keeps various religious denominations from being in communion with The One Body Of Christ, In The Unity Of The Ghost, Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic And Apostolic Church.
The Fact That The Holy Spirit Must Proceed From Both The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, dues not imply The Holy Ghost “is in a subordinate position to The Father And The Son”.
Perfect Divine Eternal Love Does Not Divide, It Multiplies, as in The Miracle Of The Loaves And Fishes.
The Filioque is a Dogma Of The Catholic Faith that affirms The Divinity Of The Holy Ghost.
“Quoting the creed, he underlined the proclamation of Christ as “consubstantial with the Father,” describing it as “a profound bond already uniting all Christians.” Citing St. Augustine, he added: “Although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.”
Quoting The Creed while acknowledging The Holy Ghost, The Spirit Of Perfect Complementary Divine Eternal Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ Proceeds From Both The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, underlines the proclamation of Christ as “consubstantial with the Father,”
Yes, the filioque has divided us for centuries. It is not such a small thing, although to outsiders it seems so. (Ask your Protestant friends and they won’t even be aware of the difference, or at least mine aren’t.) Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
As events, whether by chance or the fates would have it, Byzantine emperor Patriarch Constantine XI Palaiologos was in consultation for unity with Rome when Ottoman sultan Mehmed II moved his siege artillery in range of Constantinople. Constantine considered making the momentous decision to unite when Mehmed’s artillery crumbled the great city’s walls. All was lost.
The Vatican had prepared to send a fleet though time had run out. When Genoese captain Giovanni Giustiniani Longo had arrived earlier with a brigade of Genoese and Greek mercenaries, the emperor placed him in command of the city’s defense. Outnumbered, outgunned they fought well, joined by Venetians who had several ships in harbor. The good was that Italians and Greeks fought and died together, despite the 1182 massacre of the Latins in that city, the 1204 sack by French and Venetian crusaders – to save the central city of Orthodoxy.
Ottoman Islam would spread into Europe on the verge of conquest when defeated at Lepanto under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin and similarly at the gates of Vienna. Might it again be the growing, ominous threat of Islam, the scourge of moral disorder due to indifference reasons for uniting in the name of Christ under Our Lady’s patronage?
About being “outnumbered and outgunned” at the FALL of COBSTANTINOPLE: Between one hundred and three hundred thousand Muslims moved against a much smaller remaining force of only seven thousand defenders. The historian JOHN JULIUS NORWICH captures this moment:
“By now, too, the omens had begun. On 22 May there was a lunar eclipse; a day or two later, as the holiest icon of the Virgin was being carried through the streets in one last appeal for her intercession, it slipped from its platform. A few hundred yards further on, a violent thunderstorm caused the whole procession to be abandoned. The next morning the city was shrouded in fog, unheard-of at the end of May; the same night the dome of Santa Sophia was suffused with an unearthly red glow that crept slowly up from the base to the summit and then went out. The past phenomenon was also seen by the Turks in Galata; Mehmet himself was greatly disturbed, and was reassured only after his astrologers had interpreted it as a sign that the building would soon be illuminated by the True Faith. For the Byzantines, the meaning was clear: the Spirit of God itself had deserted their city” (“A Short History of Bizantium,”1997).
And, about the SCOURGE of CHRISTIAN DISUNITY:
The Muslim siege in 1453 was aided by a 27-foot-long brass canon built by a German (!) engineer…
And, it’s possible Constantinople could even have held if it had not been sacked and permanently weakened over two centuries earlier in 1204 by the Fourth Crusade (!).
And later, about the divisive Reformation, the Augustinian monk Luther might not have been below the radar in 1517, had not the Emperor and the Pope both been distracted by Muslim advances from the east following disaster of 1453 (and preceding the successful Battle of Vienna in 1683).
That trip is another step towards building One Global Church.
The One, Catholic Church already exists. So…the one global church has been around a while.
Should we not desire union with the Orthodox churches?
“Should we not desire union with the Orthodox churches?”
We should desire that The Orthodox Churches that are not in communion with Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, desire to return to The One Body Of Christ , which exists “Through Him, With Him, And IIn Him, Oh God Almighty Father, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost”, affirming both The Filioque and The Papacy Of His One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church , That Christ Himself Has Founded For The Salvation Of Souls.
You mean one catholic and universal Church the way it used to be before the Great Schism?
Isn’t that what we should hope for?
John 17:22. “ that you may be one as we are one…” given as a witness to the world.
Although we missed a golden opportunity for unification with Greek Orthodox, Byzantine emperor Patriarch Constantine XI Palaiologos willing at the last, lost minute, last night viewed Leo XIV attend the very solemn, deeply reverential Mass offered by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew 1 of Constantinople eastern Orthodox Church. Deep. Beautifully solemn.
Captured was a profound insight into the granite like immobility of the Greek Orthodox, if not in the integrity of doctrine: the filioque clause, Christological deficiency, divorce; rather in their ownership as the primary recipients of Paul’s mission to convert the gentiles. It was from their tradition that we have the Septuagint, the Koine Greek Gospels, the majority of Church fathers, the theological masters of Alexandria Athanasius and Cyril. The locales of the early councils Nicaea the first. A fierce attitude, Let no other Christian Church claim dominance.
Last night Patriarch Bartholomew I revealed an entirely different posture with Leo XIV. Smiling, leading by hand, showing warm respect. Perhaps more than Athenagoras showed Paul VI. Pope Leo gave a talk, almost a Francis I replica musing on care for our environment, creation, without mentioning in any form the precious value of the creation of Man, his present day moral disfigurement, the slaughter of human life in the womb.
Nevertheless Leo addressed the required effort to settle differences amicably for sake of unity. It all seems hopeful. Although this observer is not convinced whether differences will be correctly resolved or simply disregarded. The result a fine friendship in place of real unity. Still there’s hope.
How many of the sixteen (or so) of the Orthodox Churches fully in communion with one another attended the events for the Nicea anniversary? Does anyone know? I have been looking for a list and have gathered that at least three Churches were not in attendance, the Patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem and (unsurprisingly) Russia. The answer could shed light n how much widespread interest in unification presently exists across the Orthodox world, outside of the Churches directly connected to the Ecumenical Patriarch. And that, in turn, could help clarify what the prospects are for achieving more unity in the near future.