AUSTRALIA’S Catholic bishops have responded to ‘the pressing difficulties that face migrants and refugees’ with a guide for pastoral care of these groups.
The guidelines are set out in the Statement on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, launched in Canberra last Wednesday by bishops’ conference president, Archbishop Francis Carroll of Canberra and Coeburn.
The bishops say the statement’s purpose is ‘to present principles that motivate the Church’s pastoral response to migrants and refugees and to outline proposals and guidelines for implementation in Australia’.
They say that the influx of migrants and refugees is ‘a pastoral challenge for the Church’.
The statement, developed by the Bishops’ Committee for Migrants and Refugees, gives a history of migration to Australia, sets out guiding principles from Scripture and Church documents and explains ‘the responsibilities of Christ’s faithful’ and ‘proposals for pastoral care’.
No section of the Church community is exempted from responsibility for the pastoral welfare of the newcomers, it says.
