Via Crucis de los Peoples brought together communities of migrants in La Plata, Argentina

Convened by the Pastoral Teams of Migrants and Social Pastoral of the Archdiocese of La Plata (Argentina), and chaired by the local archbishop, Mons. Gustavo Carrara, on Friday, April 11, the traditional via Crucis de los Peoples was held.

At the doors of Holy Week, this initiative annually summons migrant communities to remember the passion of the Lord. On this occasion, he took the motto “Walking together in La Esperanza” and brought together Paraguayan, Bolivian, Peruvian and Venezuelan faithful, among others, who reside in Argentina and went with the flags of their countries.

All of them gathered in Plaza Moreno, from where the commemoration of the path of Jesus to Calvario, headed by Mons. Carrara and his auxiliary bishop, Mons. Jorge González, who accompanied the prayer in each station.

At the end of the tour, the archbishop taught the blessing with the cross to those present, and then presided the Eucharist in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

“This Friday we pray the Mass and memory of the Virgin, of our Mother, at the foot of the Cross of Jesus,” express The prelate.

Directing those present in the via Crucis de los Peoples, he said: “We sister faith, a faith that has become flesh and blood, which has become culture in our people and that allows us to be the same people, the people of God as a pilgrim.”

The faith, said Mons. Carrara, “arrived through the crucified, but also the faith came to us from the Virgin, of our mother.”

“She always taught us to love Jesus and teaches us to always be close to the cross of those who resemble her son Jesus,” he said. Therefore, he asked her to “not lose that sensitivity, not to lose that humanity, that delicacy and tenderness.”

“That as a Church and people of God we can learn from our mother who does not abandon and leaves anyone alone in his cross, but accompanies. We can like Church to look a little to our mother, whom we receive in our hearts, and we know how to leave alone to those who participate in the cross of Jesus,” he prayed, asking in turn that “this via cross Archdiocese ”.

Migration data in Argentina

And Published study By the National Population Directorate in 2022, it announced that, in August of that year, the number of people born abroad with DNI with a digital process and residence in Argentina was 3,033,786.

Of that number, more than 87.1% were from South America countries.

Little more than half of the foreign population was from Paraguay and Bolivia: 29.67% were born in Paraguay, while 21.71% in Bolivia.

They are followed by Peru, with 9.54%, Venezuela, with 7.27%, and Chile, with 6.98%. To a lesser extent are Uruguay, with 4.23% and Colombia with 3.69%.