On July 13, called “Domingo del Mar”, the Catholic Church remembers the thousands of sailors who work away from their homes and families.
In a message on the occasion of this day, Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicasterio for the Service of Integral Human Development, stressed the importance of bringing to the heart of the Church, the work of the people of the sea, “often carried out in an invisible way.”
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The purple stressed that this work contributes significantly to the economy and the development of the peoples, while reminding the sailors that “they are not alone in their demands of justice, dignity and joy.”
Especially in this jubilee year, the cardinal urged Catholics to “break the chains, forgive debts, redistribute resources, find themselves in peace”, brave human gestures “but at the same time possible.”
“The whole Church is also called to question about current working conditions in ports and vessels, including workers’ rights, safety conditions and both material and spiritual assistance provided to them,” he said.
He also stressed that “in an injured creation and in a world in which conflicts and inequalities increase, loving the god of life implies committing to life.”
“Life, in effect, is always something concrete: the life of a person, the life that is being spent on relationships that, if they are not liberating, become oppressive, and if they do not flourish, they are humiliating,” Czerny warned.
Therefore, he invited to think of those who contribute to the daily functioning of our economies, “often without obtaining personal benefits and face situations of discrimination and danger.”
The Vatican authority insisted that the word “hope” should always remind us of what our goal is: “We are not vagrants without destiny, but daughters and sons whose dignity nobody or anything can ever erase.”
For the purple, we all come from the same house and we will return to the same house: a homeland without borders or customs, where there are no privileges that generate divisions, or injustices that cause suffering. ”
By way of conclusion, he expressed his sincere thanks to the Christian sailors and all his classmates from other religions and cultures. “You are pilgrims of hope every time you work with attention and love.”
“We ask them to also act as bridges between enemy countries and be peace prophets,” he added.
Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
Graduated in journalism and advertising from the CEU San Pablo University of Madrid. Specialized in religious information in Spain since 2015. It has been a senior correspondent for ACI Press and Ewtn News at the Vatican for two years and is currently a correspondent for Europe based on Spain.