Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

People on the Move

N° 111 (Suppl.), December 2009

WELCOME ADDRESS 

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto

Secretary

Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care

of Migrants and Itinerant People

Your Excellencies, Reverend Monsignors, Fathers, Sisters, Brothers, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this First Latin American Meeting for the Pastoral Care of the Road. I want also to begin by thanking the representatives of different countries and the officials of CELAM for the work that has been done especially in facilitating our meeting today. It is good to see that we are already carrying out valuable apostolates for those ‘on the road’ and ‘in the street’. Your important work is one of the great treasures of the Church, often unseen.

Coming together as we do, here in Bogota, is a clear sign of the Church’s solicitude towards those who live and work on the roads and in the streets. Meeting too at a continental level, as we do for the first time in this Latin American and Caribbean region, we recognise the importance and work of CELAM. You have also raised up saints and martyrs and you have been blessed with many signs of the social gospel in action. Despite this, yours is also a continent in which there has not been a fair distribution of wealth, where political instability and conflict has allowed many to continue to live below the poverty line and where human dignity is often marred.

Pope Benedict, speaking at the Inaugural Session of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in May 2007, at Aparecida said this:

“The peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean have the right to a full life, proper to the children of God, under conditions that are more human: free from the threat of hunger and from every form of violence.”[1]

The Apostleship of the Road-Street, which in a collective sense, you all represent, has but one purpose, to do just this: to bring “a full life, proper to the children of God”, through the power of the one who said “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10).   

You might ask what constitutes this full and proper life. Pope Paul VI says this:

“What are truly human conditions? The rise from poverty to the acquisition of life's necessities; the elimination of social ills; broadening the horizons of knowledge; acquiring refinement and culture. From there one can go on to acquire a growing awareness of other people's dignity, a taste for the spirit of poverty, an active interest in the common good, and a desire for peace. Then man can acknowledge the highest values and God Himself, their author and end. Finally and above all, there is faith—God's gift to men of good will—and our loving unity in Christ, who calls all men to share God's life as sons of the living God, the Father of all men.” [2]

The theme of our Meeting over the next days has been taken from words from St. Luke’s Gospel “Jesus came up and walked by their side”(Luke 24:15) - The Pastoral Care of the Road-Street: A walk together”. How apt this is for those of you already engaged in this vast apostolate and for those who will start to work in this field. This story, or image of Emmaus from Scripture is a powerful one as it presents to us the Risen Christ, bringing light and hope to those two disciples on the road. It was on the road that he comes and walks with them, explaining to them scriptures, eventually opening their eyes to the fullness of who He is. The journey on the road has brought transformation, from sorrow to that of joy, from despair to hope.

So often America is called the “Continent of Hope”[3]. The walk to Emmaus was essentially one that instilled hope into those whose “faces were downcast” (Luke 24:17). It was not just a hope of a better world, where justice and peace would reign, but hope in the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, who said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). Pope John Paul II spoke very clearly in Post-Synodical Exhortation “Ecclesia in America” thus:

“The Church in America must incarnate in her pastoral initiatives the solidarity of the universal Church towards the poor and the outcast of every kind. Her attitude needs to be one of assistance, promotion, liberation and fraternal openness. The goal of the Church is to ensure that no one is marginalized.”[4]

He then continued:

 “The Church's work on behalf of the poor in every part of America is important; yet efforts are still needed to make this line of pastoral activity increasingly directed to an encounter with Christ who, though rich, made himself poor for our sakes, that he might enrich us by his poverty (cf. 2 Cor 8:9).” [5]

In a very real and concrete way, the “Apostolate of the Road-Street” enables Christ to walk with those upon the road and streets, in those darkened areas where He is unknown, unloved  or where his face has been obscured by poverty and sin. Each of you have the special task, along with co- workers and collaborators, to be the face of Christ to others. When we love, others come to see and experience the heart of Christ, as Pope Benedict reminds us:

“A Christian knows when it is time to speak of God and when it is better to say nothing and to let love alone speak. He knows that God is love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8) and that God's presence is felt at the very time when the only thing we do is to love. …..It is the responsibility of the Church's charitable organizations to reinforce this awareness in their members, so that by their activity as well as their words, their silence, their example they may be credible witnesses to Christ.” [6]

How best can we minister Christ? How can we restore the dignity to so many when the task seems overwhelming? How too can we prevent our faces becoming downcast confronted with the magnitude of the task facing us? These are questions which are always present to those in this vanguard of evangelisation. We do not underestimate the task, and recognise time and again, that there are no clear and immediate answers to the problems encountered along the way, in the road, in the street. At the very heart of our work needs to be a recognition that it “It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me”(Galatians 2:19-20). Pope Benedict reminds us, in this context,  that the Church, “grows by attraction: just as Christ ‘draws all to himself’ by the power of his love, culminating in the sacrifice of the Cross, so the Church fulfils her mission to the extent, in union with Christ, she accomplishes every one of her works in spiritual and practical imitation of her Lord”[7]

All this needs application on a very practical level and  to this end, Pope John Paul gives us some very wise advice:

“Structures and organizations, and the ecclesial life style, must always mirror the simple face of Latin America to facilitate a greater closeness with the underprivileged masses, the indigenous peoples, immigrants, displaced persons, workers, the marginalized, the sick and, in general, those who are suffering, that is, all those who are or should be the goal of your preferential option.”[8]

As you travel through these next days, essential will be the sharing of good-practise, both in structures and pastoral application. I would ask that you pay particular attention also to  the link with the local Church, especially in unity with your local bishop.  It is important that the Church must always act as whole, as the Body of Christ, even if you are ‘specialists’.

Finally, let me assure you of your vital and important role in the work of the Church and the proclamation of the Kingdom, because

“To carry out better your task of proclaiming Christ to the men and women of today and shedding the light of Gospel wisdom on the challenges and problems that beset the Church and society in Latin America at the beginning of the new millennium, the Church needs many competent evangelizers who, brimming with faith and hope, will speak “increasingly of Jesus Christ" (Ecclesia in America, n. 67) with fresh zeal and a profound ecclesial spirit.”[9]

Above all, The Church needs you and counts very much on your generous contribution!

I thank you once again for your participation and pray that your work will be fruitful together. I entrust you to the power of the one who is all Hope and to Mary, Our Lady of the Way, so that together “you may be faithful disciples, so as to be courageous and effective missionaries”[10] on the road-street.