by Father Francis Sunil Rosario
Since Pope Francis was elected in March 2013, his pontificate has emphasized a particular concern of the Church — the pastoral care of migrants, displaced people, and refugees. Migration is a complex and challenging mission.
Many dioceses have taken steps to help migrants and the displaced people in their region. The Diocese of Brooklyn has an office to help migrants, those seeking asylum, refugees, and displaced people.
From December 2016 to May 2019, I was the parochial vicar for several diocesan parishes. In that role, I encountered many migrants and refugees who left their countries to create a better future for themselves and their families.
The call of Pope Francis is: “May our Christian communities really be places of hospitality, listening, and communion! Let us not forget the flesh of Christ which is in the flesh of refugees: their flesh is the flesh of Christ.”
From the earliest days of his pontificate, Pope Francis has emphasized a “culture of encounter.” This encounter is intrinsic to our faith because, as the Holy Father teaches, “faith is an encounter with Jesus, and we must do what Jesus does — encounter others.” In the recent Synod of Bishops on Synodality, the emphasis was attentive listening to the needs of others,
strangers, displaced people, and the cry of the poor and the marginalized.
When Pope Francis invites us to cultivate a culture of encounter, he is drawing on deep wells within the Christian tradition. St. Peter writes in the New Testament how Christians are always, in a sense, ‘foreigners and exiles’ because their allegiance is never to one place or one state but to all of their neighbors and ultimately to God (1 Peter 2: 9-16).
In his encyclical letter, “Fratelli tutti,” Pope Francis proposed fraternity and social friendship as ways to build a better, more just, and peaceful world, with the commitment of all — people and institutions — and with an emphatic confirmation of a “no” to war and to globalized indifference. The migrants and those displaced are vulnerable to indifference in our world of tyranny.
The ministry of Jesus excludes no one and shows no favoritism. Our parishes and our lives are called to mirror that of Christ. I encountered the Lord Jesus Christ through my interactions with people from Latin America, the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, and other countries around the world.
Let our parishes and our homes become places of hospitality. In preparation to celebrate our Jubilee year and that the Good Samaritans who offer hospitality along the way can also be blessed by this encounter.
Father Francis Sunil Rosario, a visiting priest at Our Lady Queen of Angels in Sunnyside, is from the Archdiocese of Calcutta, India.