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Migrant and refugee week – It is not just about migrants!

19th August, 2019

This week 19th – 25th August is Migrant and Refugee week. It is not about migrants but also abut ourselves, our fears and our hopes.

The Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office (https://www.acmro.catholic.org.au/) has published a Migrant and Refugee Kit  for the week. The Kit is intended as a resource to help you to reflect on and celebrate the life and story of all those “who came across the sea”. Migrants have graced this land, already inhabited by indigenous community, with their sacrifices, hard work and love. This resource material takes its inspiration from Pope Francis’ Message for the 105th World day of Migrants and Refugees: “It Is Not Just About Migrants”. What is it about then? It is also about our fears and our hopes. Is also about who we are and who we want to become. It is about what kind of society and church we want to create.

The kit contains a excellent PowerPoint and booklet emphasizing the story of  Jesus as a refugee. It is certainly worth watching and sharing.

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Church Teaching on Migration

Action and attitude

In the Gospel, Jesus compels us to welcome the stranger (Matthew 25:35). Welcome in this context involves both an attitude and an action. It is our attitude which constantly needs to be assessed in light of the Gospel to ensure that we are carrying out the Lord’s commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves. Once we have the right attitude, our actions should reflect and consolidate this attitude. The Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office (ACMRO) advocates for attitudes based on compassion, justice, mercy, acceptance and encounter. Actions based on these attitudes seek to comfort the afflicted, provide refuge for the persecuted and be a homeland for the exiled.