Rome (Italy). On 29 September 2024, the last day of September, the 110th World Day of Migrants and Refugees (GMMR) will be celebrated. It was established by the Church in 1914 to bring to the attention and prayer of ecclesial and civil communities the reality of migrants and refugees, to show closeness to vulnerable people on the move, pray for them as they face many challenges, and raise awareness about the opportunities offered by migration.
“God walks with His people” is the theme chosen by the Holy Father for his annual Message in the synodal perspective, “We are all migrants on this earth on our way to our true homeland. So, on this special day, I invite you to walk TOGETHER with the most vulnerable, with Jesus, to remind ourselves that we are all children of the same Father and that together with Him we want to build a more fraternal world.”
According to the Report Global Trends 2023 of the UNHCR, the UN Agency for Refugees – presenting the main statistical trends and the latest official statistics on refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and stateless people in the world, at the end of 2023 there were 117.3 million people worldwide forced to flee because of persecution, conflicts, violence, human rights violations, and events that seriously disturbed public order, reached an historic level.
This number, according to UNHCR estimates, continued to increase in the first four months of 2024, and by the end of April, it was likely to have exceeded 120 million. The population fleeing would therefore be equivalent to that of an entire country, almost as large as Japan. Last year, UNHCR declared 43 emergencies in 29 countries responding to new or worsening humanitarian crises, “the highest annual number of declared emergencies in the past ten years, quadrupled in just three years” (Source: UNHCR Italia).
In his Message, Pope Francis finds analogies with the image of the biblical exodus: Likewise, it is possible to see in the migrants of our time, as in those of every age, a living image of God’s people on their way to the eternal homeland. Their journeys of hope remind us that ‘our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Phil 3:20). (…) The images of the biblical exodus and of migrants share several similarities. Like the people of Israel in the time of Moses, migrants often flee from oppression, abuse, insecurity, discrimination, and lack of opportunities for development. Similar to the Jews in the desert, migrants encounter many obstacles in their path: they are tried by thirst and hunger; they are exhausted by toil and disease; they are tempted by despair.”
It also addresses the human and spiritual aspect of those who face an “exodus” today: “Many migrants experience God as their traveling companion, guide, and anchor of salvation. They entrust themselves to Him before setting out and seek Him in times of need. In Him, they find consolation in moments of discouragement. Thanks to Him, there are good Samaritans along the way. In prayer, they confide their hopes to Him. How many Bibles, copies of the Gospels, prayer books, and rosaries accompany migrants on their journeys across deserts, rivers, seas, and the borders of every continent!
God not only walks with his people, but also within them, in the sense that He identifies himself with men and women on their journey through history, particularly with the least, the poor, and the marginalized. In this, we see an extension of the mystery of the Incarnation.”
Recalling that “migrants are contemporary icons of this people on the way, of the Church on the way and, at the same time, it is in them and all our vulnerable brothers and sisters that we can meet the Lord who walks with us,” the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development (DSSUI) promotes a communication campaign in preparation for WGR2024 in which it invites all people of good will to organize initiatives with migrants, refugees, vulnerable people.
As suggested by Fr. Fabio Baggio, a Scalabrinian missionary, undersecretary of the DSSUI, “the idea is to walk a piece of road together, with our communities, parishes, dioceses, involving all the inhabitants of the ‘existential peripheries’ that Pope Francis always invites us to welcome.”
“Dear brothers and sisters, on this day dedicated to migrants and refugees, let us unite in prayer for all those who have had to leave their land in search of dignified living conditions. May we journey together with them, be ‘synodal’ together, and entrust them, as well as the forthcoming Synod Assembly, to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a sign of sure hope and consolation to the faithful People of God as they continue their journey” (XVI Ordinary General Assembly Synthesis Report: Proceeding Along the Journey).
It is the Pope’s appeal, which ends the annual Message with a Prayer that can be used in the communities.
On the website of the Dicastery it is possible to download all the materials of the GMMR 2024: the Pope’s Message and the dossier on the animation of the educating communities in various languages.
