The Brisbane Archdiocese’s Centre for Multicultural Pastoral Care (CMPC) will hold an Official Launch of the Vatican’s Pastoral Statement Erga Migrantes caritas Christi (The love of Christ towards migrants) at the Parliamentary Annex on Tuesday 14th September.
The Pastoral Instruction was released by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People in Rome on May 3rd of this year.
The Instruction will be launched by the Most Rev Auxilary Bishop Joseph Oudeman OFM Cap and the Honourable Karen Struthers MP, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier (Multicultural Affairs) and Minister for Trade.
Over 200 people from a variety of Church, Government and Community organisations will attend the launch.
The Instruction aims to update the pastoral care of migration, thirty-five years after the publication of Pope Paul VI’s Motu Propio: Pastoralis migratorum cura, and is significant, given migration in the year 2004 makes up the vastest movement of peoples of all times.
The CMPC’s Assistant Director, Mary Gavin, said the release of the Instruction was a call to all members of the Catholic Church to respond to people on the move in an inclusive and welcoming way.
“Through the Instruction we are called to give witness to and practise not only the spirit of tolerance but also respect for the other’s identity,” said Ms Gavin.
“The turmoil of migration is challenging enough without migrants having to suffer the loss of their religious rite and identity.
“I was also very heartened by the emphasis placed on the need for an ecumenical vision and inter-religious dialogue because of the changing composition of today’s migration.
“I think the whole Instruction shows just how much in touch with the reality of today’s world the Pontifical Council is, and how relevant the Instruction is, not only to the Church, but the wider society,” she said.