Catholic migrants revitalize the ecclesial communities of the countries that host them, says Leo XIV

Leo XIV said that Catholic migrants and refugees “can become missionaries of hope today in the countries that host them”, while emphasizing their ability to “revitalize rigid and tired ecclesial communities.”

“His spiritual enthusiasm and dynamism, can contribute to revitalize rigid and tired ecclesial communities, in which the spiritual desert progresses,” said the Pope in the message on the occasion of the 111st World Day of the migrant and refugee, which will be held on October 4 and 5 – coinciding with the jubilee of migrants and the missionary world.

The Pontiff focused his reflection on the link between Christian hope and migration and praised the faith with which immigrants challenges “death on the different migratory routes.”

“Numerous migrants, refugees and displaced are privileged witnesses of hope lived in everyday life, through their confidence in God and their resistance to adversities overlooking a future in which they glimpse the arrival of happiness and integral human development,” he said in the statement published this Friday.

Therefore, he emphasized that his presence “must be recognized and appreciated as a true divine blessing, an opportunity to open up to the grace of God, which gives new energy and hope to his Church.”

He added: “In a world obscured by wars and injustices, even where everything seems lost, migrants and refugees stand as messengers of hope. Their courage and tenacity are a heroic testimony of a faith that sees beyond what our eyes can see and that gives them strength to challenge death in the different contemporary migratory routes.”

“Migrants and refugees remind the church of their pilgrim dimension, perpetually aimed at reaching the definitive homeland, sustained by hope that is theological virtue,” he insisted.

Thus, he called to wait “a future of dignity and peace for all human beings” despite the “terrifying scenarios” of “wars, violence, injustices and extreme weatherological phenomena” that exist.

Arms trade and poor consideration of the nefarious effects of the current climatic crisis

“The perspective of a new arms career and the development of new weapons – including nuclear -, the low consideration of the disastrous effects of the current climatic crisis and the deep economic inequalities make the challenges of the present and the future more and more difficult,” he said in the message.

Therefore, he warned the Catholic Church of the temptation of “sedentary” and, therefore, to stop being Peregrina Civitas, since as San Agustín points out in one of his capital booksThe city of Godthe people of God are “pilgrim towards the celestial homeland”, because it does not cease to be “in the world” and becomes “the world.”

“This is a temptation already present in the first Christian communities, to the point that the apostle Paul has to remember the Church of Philippi that ‘We are citizens of heaven, and we arbitantly expect that the Lord Jesus Christ comes from there as Salvador. He will transform our poor mortal body, making it similar to his glorious body, with the power he has to put all things under his dominance,” says León XIV.

He also called to go beyond individualism, which he defined as a “serious threat” for the “assignment of responsibilities, multilateral cooperation” and “the achievement of the common good.”

In this sense, he criticized the “generalized tendency to ensure exclusively for the interests of circumscribed communities” and assured that there is “a clear analogy” among immigrants “with the experience of the people of Israel Wandering for the desert, which face all the dangers relying on the protection of the Lord.”

Finally, the Pope expressed his desire to entrust each of them, and those who accompany them with generosity and compassion, “to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary, invoked as a comfort of migrants.”