Migrations present important challenges today, as in the time of St. Scalabrini – Pope Francis
Christopher Francis: The Vatican
Encourage the message of human community and encounter, while never hesitating to act creatively, Pope Francis asked the mystics of St. Scalabrini on October 10.
On Sunday, October 09, Pope Francis addressed thousands of people from different countries, including Catholics and immigrants from Como and Piacenza dioceses, who had come to Rome for the canonization event of Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, who started their congregations, at the St. Paul VI Arena of the Vatican.
The multicultural people participating in this meeting clearly express the spirit of Bishop Scalabrini, who wrote that one diocese is not enough, and his openness, the Pope said.
Pope Francis said Scalabrini looked for Christ in the people when he ministered to the thousands of Italians who immigrated to the United States in the late 1800s, providing them with adequate material and spiritual support.
Just like yesterday’s migration…
As the migration of yesterday, so is the migration of today. The Pope said that migrations present important challenges in this era, as in the time of Scalabrini, and that there is a greater need today to promote a sense of fraternity before neglect and a sense of unity before exclusion.
The Pope said that we are called to live and spread a culture of encounter that creates an equal encounter between migrants and the countries that receive them, adding that in order to build a better world for all, we must start from those who are at the end.
In order to develop fraternity and social friendship, the Pope requested that creative thinking should be done, and that art, music, and living together should become instruments of multiculturalism, and that the members of the congregations started by St. Scalabrini should follow the example of the Master.