Find Christ in Immigrants

A community cannot call itself Christian if it does not welcome immigrants is the message from Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini Imeri of San Marcos in a message titled “Migration and the Faith,” published on the occasion of the National Day of the Immigrant, to be celebrated on Sunday.  “At the base of this attitude is contemplation of the Lord, thanks to the faith that allows us to discover him in them.” He concluded, “May Mary Most Holy, who went on pilgrimage with Joseph and the Child Jesus to Egypt, accompany all men and women immigrants in these difficult moments.”

“No Christian community will be able to consider itself as such if it does not welcome immigrant brothers and sisters with solicitude and affection. … “the Catholic Church of the American continent cannot and must not remain in a passive attitude.”

However, Bishop Ramazzini said, it is difficult, pastorally speaking, “to have immigrants welcomed, loved and served in Christian communities.” He noted that “thousands of Christians, Catholics and non-Catholics,” are unaware or indifferent to “the sufferings, difficulties, anguishes, dreams and hopes of immigrants.”

http://www.zenit.org/article-26742