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Washington, DC 20017
202.635.2556
202.635.2649 fax
media inquiries:
e-mail me
(202) 635-5810
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governance
Catholic social teaching
annual reports
divisions
diversity
employment
contact us
staff bios
OTHER PAPAL & VATICAN STATEMENTS OF NOTE
(2 of 3)
Message of Pope John Paul II for Lent 1990, "Refugees Are
Neighbors (September 8, 1989)
"[Refugees must be guaranteed] the right to establish a family or to be
reunited with their families; to have a stable, dignified occupation and a
just wage; to live in dwellings fit for human beings; to receive adequate
education for their children and young people, as well as adequate
health care."
Speech of John Paul II to the General Assembly of the
International Catholic Migration Commission (July 5, 1990)
"It is necessary to restate that, for migrants or refugees as for all other
human beings, rights are not based primarily on juridical membership in
a determined community, but, prior to that, on the dignity of the person
...."
"The Catholics who place themselves at the service of migrants and of
refugees cannot forget that they are the disciples of Him who is
recognized by the attributes of the Good Samaritan and who himself
affirms to us that He identifies himself with the poor and the stranger."
"Everyone must have a conversion of heart and there must be a
conversion among communities as well. This conversion will be real
when people understand that service to one's brothers and sisters is not
merely a secondary 'good deed', but that it is strictly tied to the personal
relationship of the Christian with his or her Lord, the Good Sheperd who
lays down His life that there may be one flock."
Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" and Pontifical Council for the
Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, "Refugees: A
Challenge to Solidarity" 1, 4, 9-10, 13-14, 16 (1992).
"Joseph's brothers went down into Egypt, driven by a devastating famine
(Gn. 42:1-3); the people of Judah, defeated in war, were 'taken into exile
out of their land (2 K 25:21); Joseph took Jesus and his mother and fled
by night to Egypt because King Herod was searching for the child to
destroy him (Mt. 2:13-15); 'That day a bitter persecution started against
the church in Jerusalem, and everyone except the apostle fled to the
country districts of Judea and Samaris (Ac 8:1.)'"
"In the case of the so-called economic migrants, justice and equity
demand that appropriate distinctions be made. Those who flee
economic conditions that threaten their lives and physical safety must
be treated differently from those who migrate to improve their position."
"The problem of refugees must be confronted at its roots, that is, at the
level of the very causes of exile. The first point of reference should not
be the interests of the State or national security but the human person,
so that the need to live in community, a basic requirement of the very
nature of human beings, will be safeguarded."
"Any person in danger who appears at a frontier has a right to
protection."
"The exercise of the right to asylum ... should be recognized everywhere
and not obstructed with deterrent and punitive measures."
"No person must be sent back to a country where he or she fears
discriminatory action or serious life-threatening situations."
"Indifference constitutes a sin of omission. Solidarity helps to reverse the
tendency to see the world solely from one's point of view."
"The tragedy of refugees is 'a wound which typifies and reveals the
imbalance and conflicts of the modern world.' It shows a divided world
that is far from that ideal according to which 'if one member suffers, all
suffer together' (1 Cor. 12:26). The Church offers her love and assistance
to all refugees without distinction as to religion or race, respecting in
each of them the inalienable dignity of the human person created in
the image of God (cf. Gn 1:27)."
Message of John Paul II for World Migration Day, 1996-1997:
"Faith Works Through Charity" 2, 4 (Aug. 21, 1996)
"The task of proclaiming the word of God, entrusted by Jesus to the
Church, has been interwoven with the history of Christian emigration
from the very beginning. In the Encyclical Redemtoris missio, I recalled
that 'in the early centuries, Christianity spread because Christians,
traveling to or settling in regions where Christ had not yet been
proclaimed, bore courageous witness to their faith and founded the first
communities there.' This has also happened in recent times...Today the
trend in migratory movement has been as it were inverted. It is non-
Christians, increasingly numerous, who go to countries with a Christian
tradition in search of work and better living conditions, and they
frequently do so as illegal immigrants and refugees ... For her part, the
Church, like the Good Samaritan, feels it her duty to be close to the
illegal immigrant and refugee, contemporary icol of the despoiled
traveler, beaten and abandoned on the side of the road to Jericho. (Lk
10:30)."
"This is the Church's missionary path: to go to meet women and men of
every race, tongue and nation with friendship and love, sharing their
conditions in an evangelical spirit, to break the bread of truth and
charity for them.... It is the apostolic style which shines through the
missionary experience of the first Christian communities ... [Paul] active
in the city of Corinth whose population was largely composed of
immigrants working in the port, is urged by the Lord not to be afraid, to
continue to 'speak and not to be silent' and to trust in the saving power
of the wisdom of the Cross (1 Cor. 1:26-27)."
Other statements for World Migration Day 1995-2006
U.S. BISHOPS’ STATEMENTS
National Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Together a New
People: Pastoral Statement on Migrants and Refugees
(United States Catholic Conference, Inc., November 8, 1986),
pp. 2, 7-8, 10, 12.
"The [Catholic] Church [in the United States] extended its pastoral care
to every new arriving group and devised innovative responses in the
context of the times; educating immigrant children, caring for the
orphans, establishing parishes of various languages, teaching
seminarians the language of newcomers, forming immigrant
associations, offering Christian sympathy and instilling understanding of
the duties of citizenship. The pastoral letters of the United States
Catholic Bishops and the pastoral practices of dioceses and parishes
document a tradition of welcome into the social church where there are
no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and
female, but all are one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28). A Church of many
nations, the Catholic community was called to develop an attitude of
welcome, mindful of the Lord's words: 'He who welcomes you welcomes
me.' (Mt. 10:40). It was challenged to reach out to the poor and the
marginal and open ways to full participation, because when a stranger
sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong ... he shall be
to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself (Lv
19:33-34).' "
"The task of welcoming immigrants, refugees and displaced person into
full participation in the Church and society with equal rights and duties
continues the biblical understanding of the justice of God reaching out
to all peoples and rectifying the situation of the poor, the orphans, the
widows, the disadvantaged, and especially in the Old Testament, the
alien and the stranger."
"The biblical injunction to extend hospitality to the stranger overcomes
the tendency to see newcomers as a threat to our comfort, institutions,
culture and lifestyles."
"The plight of the undocumented assumes a particular urgency. It is
against the common good and unacceptable to have a double society,
one visible with rights and one invisible without rights - a voiceless
underground of undocumented persons. For political and economic
reasons, these persons have settled into the country and are now part of
its life. While the government has a right to safeguard the common good
by controlling immigration, an effort should be pursued to regularize as
many undocumented immigrants as possible."
"The commitment to welcome is a call to dispel attitudes, stereotypes
and prejudices which are harmful to others and which make us
inhospitable."
National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on
Migration "One Family Under God" (United States Catholic
Conference, 1995), p.3.
"The New Testament shifts from identifying with strangers based on a
common experience to serving strangers because in each face we see
Christ."
OTHER STATEMENTS OF NOTE
(2 of 3)
Message of Pope John Paul II for Lent 1990, "Refugees Are
Neighbors (September 8, 1989)
"[Refugees must be guaranteed] the right to establish a family or to be
reunited with their families; to have a stable, dignified occupation and a
just wage; to live in dwellings fit for human beings; to receive adequate
education for their children and young people, as well as adequate
health care."
Speech of John Paul II to the General Assembly of the
International Catholic Migration Commission (July 5, 1990)
"It is necessary to restate that, for migrants or refugees as for all other
human beings, rights are not based primarily on juridical membership in
a determined community, but, prior to that, on the dignity of the person
...."
"The Catholics who place themselves at the service of migrants and of
refugees cannot forget that they are the disciples of Him who is
recognized by the attributes of the Good Samaritan and who himself
affirms to us that He identifies himself with the poor and the stranger."
"Everyone must have a conversion of heart and there must be a
conversion among communities as well. This conversion will be real
when people understand that service to one's brothers and sisters is not
merely a secondary 'good deed', but that it is strictly tied to the personal
relationship of the Christian with his or her Lord, the Good Sheperd who
lays down His life that there may be one flock."
Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" and Pontifical Council for the
Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, "Refugees: A
Challenge to Solidarity" 1, 4, 9-10, 13-14, 16 (1992).
"Joseph's brothers went down into Egypt, driven by a devastating famine
(Gn. 42:1-3); the people of Judah, defeated in war, were 'taken into exile
out of their land (2 K 25:21); Joseph took Jesus and his mother and fled
by night to Egypt because King Herod was searching for the child to
destroy him (Mt. 2:13-15); 'That day a bitter persecution started against
the church in Jerusalem, and everyone except the apostle fled to the
country districts of Judea and Samaris (Ac 8:1.)'"
"In the case of the so-called economic migrants, justice and equity
demand that appropriate distinctions be made. Those who flee
economic conditions that threaten their lives and physical safety must
be treated differently from those who migrate to improve their position."
"The problem of refugees must be confronted at its roots, that is, at the
level of the very causes of exile. The first point of reference should not
be the interests of the State or national security but the human person,
so that the need to live in community, a basic requirement of the very
nature of human beings, will be safeguarded."
"Any person in danger who appears at a frontier has a right to
protection."
"The exercise of the right to asylum ... should be recognized everywhere
and not obstructed with deterrent and punitive measures."
"No person must be sent back to a country where he or she fears
discriminatory action or serious life-threatening situations."
"Indifference constitutes a sin of omission. Solidarity helps to reverse the
tendency to see the world solely from one's point of view."
"The tragedy of refugees is 'a wound which typifies and reveals the
imbalance and conflicts of the modern world.' It shows a divided world
that is far from that ideal according to which 'if one member suffers, all
suffer together' (1 Cor. 12:26). The Church offers her love and assistance
to all refugees without distinction as to religion or race, respecting in
each of them the inalienable dignity of the human person created in
the image of God (cf. Gn 1:27)."
Message of John Paul II for World Migration Day, 1996-1997:
"Faith Works Through Charity" 2, 4 (Aug. 21, 1996)
"The task of proclaiming the word of God, entrusted by Jesus to the
Church, has been interwoven with the history of Christian emigration
from the very beginning. In the Encyclical Redemtoris missio, I recalled
that 'in the early centuries, Christianity spread because Christians,
traveling to or settling in regions where Christ had not yet been
proclaimed, bore courageous witness to their faith and founded the first
communities there.' This has also happened in recent times...Today the
trend in migratory movement has been as it were inverted. It is non-
Christians, increasingly numerous, who go to countries with a Christian
tradition in search of work and better living conditions, and they
frequently do so as illegal immigrants and refugees ... For her part, the
Church, like the Good Samaritan, feels it her duty to be close to the
illegal immigrant and refugee, contemporary icol of the despoiled
traveler, beaten and abandoned on the side of the road to Jericho. (Lk
10:30)."
"This is the Church's missionary path: to go to meet women and men of
every race, tongue and nation with friendship and love, sharing their
conditions in an evangelical spirit, to break the bread of truth and
charity for them.... It is the apostolic style which shines through the
missionary experience of the first Christian communities ... [Paul] active
in the city of Corinth whose population was largely composed of
immigrants working in the port, is urged by the Lord not to be afraid, to
continue to 'speak and not to be silent' and to trust in the saving power
of the wisdom of the Cross (1 Cor. 1:26-27)."
Other statements for World Migration Day 1995-2006
U.S. BISHOPS’ STATEMENTS
National Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Together a New
People: Pastoral Statement on Migrants and Refugees
(United States Catholic Conference, Inc., November 8, 1986),
pp. 2, 7-8, 10, 12.
"The [Catholic] Church [in the United States] extended its pastoral care
to every new arriving group and devised innovative responses in the
context of the times; educating immigrant children, caring for the
orphans, establishing parishes of various languages, teaching
seminarians the language of newcomers, forming immigrant
associations, offering Christian sympathy and instilling understanding of
the duties of citizenship. The pastoral letters of the United States
Catholic Bishops and the pastoral practices of dioceses and parishes
document a tradition of welcome into the social church where there are
no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and
female, but all are one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28). A Church of many
nations, the Catholic community was called to develop an attitude of
welcome, mindful of the Lord's words: 'He who welcomes you welcomes
me.' (Mt. 10:40). It was challenged to reach out to the poor and the
marginal and open ways to full participation, because when a stranger
sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong ... he shall be
to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself (Lv
19:33-34).' "
"The task of welcoming immigrants, refugees and displaced person into
full participation in the Church and society with equal rights and duties
continues the biblical understanding of the justice of God reaching out
to all peoples and rectifying the situation of the poor, the orphans, the
widows, the disadvantaged, and especially in the Old Testament, the
alien and the stranger."
"The biblical injunction to extend hospitality to the stranger overcomes
the tendency to see newcomers as a threat to our comfort, institutions,
culture and lifestyles."
"The plight of the undocumented assumes a particular urgency. It is
against the common good and unacceptable to have a double society,
one visible with rights and one invisible without rights - a voiceless
underground of undocumented persons. For political and economic
reasons, these persons have settled into the country and are now part of
its life. While the government has a right to safeguard the common good
by controlling immigration, an effort should be pursued to regularize as
many undocumented immigrants as possible."
"The commitment to welcome is a call to dispel attitudes, stereotypes
and prejudices which are harmful to others and which make us
inhospitable."
National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on
Migration "One Family Under God" (United States Catholic
Conference, 1995), p.3.
"The New Testament shifts from identifying with strangers based on a
common experience to serving strangers because in each face we see
Christ."
OTHER STATEMENTS OF NOTE
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