"Words for a society more in solidarity”

"Words for a society more in solidarity”
Rome (Italy).On Sunday, January 19, the Church celebrates the 100th World Day of Migrants and Refugees. It is a favourable occasion to consider a phenomenon that touches everyone. More than ever, this year is marked by sensitization to the event because of the example and words of Pope Francis who on many occasions during his visit to Lampedusa, an Italian island near Sicily where many immigrants land, and until Holy Family Sunday, continually made reference to them, and spoke words of encouragement and support regarding the world of migrants.
Pope Francis asks us to look at migrants as human beings with a face, a history, professional competencies, and resources. “Our society is experiencing as never before in history, processes of mutual interdependence and interaction at the global level. Even if we consider the problematic or negative elements, they have the objective of bettering the conditions of the human family, not only the economic aspects, but also the political and cultural. Every person belongs to humanity and shares the hope of a better future with the whole family of peoples”.
The Pope reminds us that we must go from ‘a culture of rejection to a culture of encounter’, overcoming facile fears and discriminations in regard to the stranger. It is a duty that the Church accepts to continue its pastoral work of information, research, formation, and planning and that even our educating communities can accompany along with our educational/pastoral mission. The Church wants to contribute, as Pope Francis wishes in his Message, to the building of “a more just society, a more complete democracy, a Country more in solidarity, a more fraternal world, and a more open Christian community according to the Gospel”.
Mother Yvonne reminds us that “only a life that knows how to risk for love daily like Jesus and opens itself with audacity to situations of poverty and mobility...becomes a sacrament of God’s presence”, and thus it evangelizes! She emphasizes that “the home we want to build together has its doors always open to let enter the Light of the Word and the merciful, gratuitous love of God radiate with courage, even going against the current and paying a personal price”. (Circular 934)
It is important that our communities learn and teach the words to build a world more in solidarity: fraternity, hospitality, welcome, respect, sharing. These give quality to the new evangelization if they are accompanied above all by a witness of personal and community life, by a shared responsibility toward a future of hope.