VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Migrants and refugees are “messengers of hope,” Pope Leo said Friday in a message released for the upcoming World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
“Migrants and refugees remind the Church of her pilgrim dimension, perpetually journeying towards her final homeland, sustained by a hope that is a theological virtue,” wrote Leo XIV.
His message released today comes in anticipation of the annual World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR) in late September. The event, said Leo, is an “opportunity to reflect on the connections between hope, migration and mission.”
The annual WDMR takes place on the last Sunday in September, but this year has additional weight since the Jubilee of Migrants will be held October 4-5. The two-day event forms part of the multitude of official Jubilee activities taking place at the Vatican throughout this Jubilee Year.
Migration and hope are closely linked, Leo said today, commenting that many migrants “demonstrate this daily through their resilience and trust in God, as they face adversity while seeking a future in which they glimpse that integral human development and happiness are possible.”
“In a world darkened by war and injustice, even when all seems lost, migrants and refugees stand as messengers of hope. Their courage and tenacity bear heroic testimony to a faith that sees beyond what our eyes can see and gives them the strength to defy death on the various contemporary migration routes.”
For Leo, a number of factors combine to accentuate difficulties, as he cited the “prospect of a renewed arms race and the development of new armaments, including nuclear weapons, the lack of consideration for the harmful effects of the ongoing climate crisis, and the impact of profound economic inequalities.”
Though dating back to 1914, the WDMR has taken on increased prominence during Pope Francis’ pontificate due to the pontiff’s own focus on the question of migration. The late pope made championing the cause of immigration one of the key themes of his pontificate, though without differentiating between legal and illegal immigration.
Francis famously stated “this problem of today of refugees and migrants is the greatest tragedy since that of World War II,” and that opposing migration is “a grave sin.”
In February a perceived rift was caused between the Vatican and Donald Trump’s presidency after Francis strongly criticized the U.S. President’s anti-illegal immigration policies. Trump’s Border Czar hit back strongly against the pope, suggesting that Francis “ought to fix the Catholic Church … So he has a wall to protect his people and himself, but we can’t have a wall around the United States?”
Leo’s first real foray into the topic as pope is somewhat more reserved than the tone often employed by his predecessor. It also draws on themes which he has already made quite central to his pontificate: hope and an end to armed conflict.
A notable tell, however, will also be what Leo decides to do during the Jubilee of Migrants in early October and whether he seeks to differentiate between illegal and legal migration when espousing the benefits of migration generally.
The Catholic Church’s teaching regarding immigration is a careful mix of charity to the citizens of a nation and those seeking entrance to that nation for just reasons. The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that “political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption.”
Furthermore, the Catechism outlines that “immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.”
In Pope Benedict XVI’s 2011 message for the 97th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, the German pope made a clear distinction between legal and illegal migration – something which was lacking under Francis’ pontificate. While quoting from Pope John Paul II to defend the “possibility” for people “to enter another country to look for better conditions of life,” Benedict also defended the rights of the home nations to restrict such entries:
At the same time, States have the right to regulate migration flows and to defend their own frontiers, always guaranteeing the respect due to the dignity of each and every human person. Immigrants, moreover, have the duty to integrate into the host Country, respecting its laws and its national identity.
Prior to this, John Paul II wrote for the same occasion in 2001 that the exercise of the “right to emigrate … is to be regulated, because practicing it indiscriminately may do harm and be detrimental to the common good of the community that receives the migrant.”
