Migrants and refugees help revitalise churches says Pope

The Pope praised the positive impacts of such people in a message for the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

“With their spiritual enthusiasm and vitality, they can help revitalise ecclesial communities that have become rigid and weighed down, where spiritual desertification is advancing at an alarming rate,” the Pope noted on July 25 in his message.

The 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees will be celebrated on October 4-5, coinciding with the Jubilee of Migrants and the Jubilee of the Missions.

The Pontiff focused his reflection on the link between Christian hope and migration.

“Many migrants, refugees, and displaced persons are privileged witnesses of hope. Indeed, they demonstrate this daily through their resilience and trust in God, as they face adversity while seeking a future in which they glimpse that integral human development,” the Pope stated.

He emphasised that their presence “should be recognised and appreciated as a true divine blessing, an opportunity to open oneself to the grace of God, who gives new energy and hope to his Church”.

The Holy Father said that “in a world darkened by war and injustice, even when all seems lost, migrants and refugees stand as messengers of hope. Their courage and tenacity bear heroic testimony to a faith that sees beyond what our eyes can see and gives them the strength to defy death on the various contemporary migration routes.

“Migrants and refugees remind the Church of her pilgrim dimension, perpetually journeying toward her final homeland, sustained by a hope that is a theological virtue,” he added.

The Pope called for hope for “a future of peace and of respect for the dignity of all” despite the “frightening scenarios” of “wars, violence, injustice, and extreme weather events”.

Pope Leo warned against the temptation of “sedentarisation” in the Church, and against Church communities becoming of the world, rather than in the world while journeying towards a heavenly home.

In his message, the Pope also mentioned individualism, the arms trade and the climate crisis.

FULL STORY

Pope Leo XIV: Catholic migrants save countries that welcome them from ‘spiritual desertification’ | Catholic News Agency (By Victoria Cardiel/CNA)