Pope Francis highlights that emigrants are teachers of hope

In a message addressed to the participants in the XVI General Chapter of the Missionaries of San Carlos, founded by Saint John Baptist Scalabrini, Pope Francis highlighted that emigrants “are teachers of hope.”

The Pontiff thanked that the Scalabrinians have chosen the same motto of Jubilee 2025 for the planning of their evangelical and pastoral action, Pilgrims of hopewhich has led him to develop a reflection regarding emigrants, pastoral care and charity.

In reference to emigrants, Pope Francis highlighted “their tenacity, often sustained by love for the families they leave behind” and valued the service of the Scalabrinians in this area “through the dynamics of encounter, dialogue, the reception of Christ present abroad.”

“The search for the future that animates the emigrant, furthermore, expresses a need for salvation that unites everyone, without distinction of race or condition. Indeed, ‘itinerancy’, correctly understood and lived, can become, even in pain, a precious school of faith and humanity, both for those who attend and a paradise for those who are assisted.” added the Pope.

In this sense, he recalled that “the history of salvation itself is a history of migrants, of peoples on the move.”

Regarding the pastoral issue, the Pontiff explained that emigration, despite being a sign of hope, “if it is lived in solitude and abandonment, it can degenerate into dramas of existential discredit, crises of values ​​and perspectives, to the point of lead to loss of faith and despair.”

The injustices and violence that those who emigrate from their homes sometimes suffer, “can drag even the strongest into the darkness of despondency or somber resignation,” Pope Francis warned in his address.

For this reason, “someone is needed to lean on their wounds, taking care of their extreme physical, spiritual and psychological vulnerability,” said the Pontiff, who called for “solid pastoral interventions of proximity at a material, religious and human level.”

In reference to charity, Pope Francis explained the need to respond to the tragedy that migrants experience first in their places of origin and then because of “the closed-mindedness and hostility of rich countries, which they see in those who call for door a threat to their own well-being.”

This produces a loss of human life “before the indifferent gaze of those who limit themselves to contemplating the spectacle or, worse still, to speculate on the skin of those who suffer.”

The answer to all this is “a charity that puts the person, their rights, their dignity at the center” that overcomes “exclusive stereotypes, to recognize in the other, whoever they are and wherever they come from, a gift from God, unique, sacred, inviolable, precious for the good of all.”

Finally, Pope Francis recommended to the Scalabrinians that their Chapter “become an occasion to deepen and renew your life and your mission, make it, above all, a moment of humble and joyful thanksgiving, before the Eucharist, of Jesus crucified and of Mary, Mother of emigrants, as Saint John Baptist Scalabrini taught you.”