Officials Responsible for Pastoral Work Among Migrants and Refugees Hold Meeting in Hungary
A meeting of officials responsible for pastoral work among migrants and refugees was held in the Hungarian city of Szombathely, organized by the Migrants Section of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe. Among the participants were 35 delegates from 19 Bishops’ Conferences. The meeting was also attended by Fr. Andriy Hakh, deputy head of the Pastoral Migration Department of the UGCC, as reported on the Facebook page of the Pastoral Migration Department of the UGCC.
The subject of this year’s meeting is “Free to choose: to migrate or to stay in place.”
The first session began with a report by Prof. Aldo Scoda, a Pontifical Urban University lecturer who outlined the challenges migrants face when they choose to emigrate, flee, or stay and the role pastoral care takes in this process. One-third of migrants are under 30 years old, that is, children and young people who are the future of European society. Therefore, it is important that their upbringing be appropriate. Fr. Fabio Baggio of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development gave another presentation on the prospects for the future of migrants and what the Apostolic See is doing for them.
The next day of the meeting, Fr. Andriy Hakh described the situation in Ukraine. He spoke about four main issues: the UGCC’s program “Healing the Wounds of War,” the family crisis, and the crisis of humanitarian education, an appeal to the European Bishops’ Conferences to remain committed to helping Ukraine, creating educational institutions and church communities.
Representatives of various Bishops’ Conferences on Migrants also presented their work. Among them were the following organizations: the International Catholic Migration Commission, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, and Caritas Europe.
The day concluded with a communal prayer with Ukrainian migrants at St. Martin’s Cathedral.
The UGCC Department for Information
