Vatican officials say migration brings opportunities for Catholics

Published: 2003-11-19

ROME (CNS) -- Migration brings with it an opportunity for Catholics to experience the universality of their church, to forge bonds with other Christians and to discover the way God is at work in other religions, Vatican officials said. Migration and the need for dialogue with other cultures, other Christians and other religions was the focus of Nov. 19 presentations at the Vatican-sponsored World Congress for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees. In societies increasingly marked by the presence of people from different cultures and religions, dialogue must be the Catholic response, said Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers. "Dialogue, the transformation of closed minds and a love that is open to the innovation of life and history ... hold central positions in our Christian identity: They are the positions of Jesus Christ," the archbishop said. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said his native Germany's encounter with Catholic "migrants and refugees led to the growth of a new awareness of the universality of our church and of our catholicity."

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