Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Priest visiting from Vatican urges people to discover the humanity of migrants and refugees

byJoe Higgins
15 August 2019 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 4 mins read
AA

Religious joy: Sister of Charity Dorothy Bayliss (left) and Canossian Sister Rose Vaggano at the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office national conference on Wednesday, August 7. Photo: Joe Higgins

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Religious joy: Sister of Charity Dorothy Bayliss (left) and Canossian Sister Rose Vaggano at the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office national conference on Wednesday, August 7. Photo: Joe Higgins

SCALABRINIAN Father Fabio Baggio urged people to discover the human face of migrants and refugees.

“We are not talking about numbers, we are talking about people,” Fr Baggio said.

“The faces of people and stories of people are much more important than the numbers.”

Fr Baggio, who leads the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development Migrants and Refugees Section, addressed the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office national conference on Wednesday, August 7. 

In his role, Fr Baggio worked directly under Pope Francis and said the Pope was “a very good boss”. 

His office supports the Church – locally, regionally, internationally – in accompanying people at all stages of migration, especially those fleeing or displaced as well as survivors and victims of human trafficking.

His keynote address at the conference focused on the challenges and realities of migration.

Why do migrants migrate?

Central to the issue of migration was the big question – why do people move?

Fr Baggio said with millions of people migrating across the world each year, uncovering the “root cause” was invaluable.

Related Stories

Pope says Church reform must originate in prayer, otherwise it is not of the Holy Spirit but of ‘groups’

Vatican launches two Sign Language programs on YouTube

Bangladesh refugee camp fire leaves 45,000 people homeless and at least 15 people dead

During his presentation, he showed a map of Africa and the Middle East with data collected over 2010-15 about the high levels of people fleeing or displaced by ongoing large-scale conflict.

“These (conflicts) are producing millions, millions, millions of displaced people,” he said.

Simply looking at the numbers might lead some to think war was the root cause.

But Fr Baggio said people needed to look deeper to the human face of migration.

“Even a single life, a single family, is very relevant,” he said. 

He said the underlying motivation of all migration was the idea that “where I’m going, I will be happier”.

“I will find life, I will survive, and I will be happier – me and my family,” Fr Baggio said.

He said the pursuit of happiness was the main reason for migration.

“And this (pursuit of happiness) cannot be stopped because it’s part of something which was put in our heart since our creation,” he said.

And knowing migration can’t be stopped was essential to addressing the challenges and realities of migration.

Welcome, protect, promote and integrate

Four verbs guided his office’s approach to migration – welcome, protect, promote and integrate – and guided the rest of his address.

Addressing the first verb, “welcome”, Fr Baggio said people had to face up to challenges like the throwaway culture.

He explained throwaway culture as the “idea where we are as useful as we can serve to the interests of others, and as soon as we are not useful anymore, we can be thrown away”.

“The culture of waste is a culture that says I am the centre of the world and everything is of interest as far as it serves me.” 

Fr Baggio said because migrants and refugees weren’t part of the local community, they could be blamed for problems and ultimately “thrown away”.

But he said on the other side of the throwaway culture was an opportunity to create a new culture.

He said his office would urge people to use the mechanics of globalisation to build a culture of solidarity.

Fr Baggio discussed other issues like a lack of preparation from local communities, unbalanced sharing of responsibilities among countries, negative narratives bound to crime and terrorism, and political usage of fear.

The other verbs – “protect”, “promote” and “integrate” – came with their challenges too.

Protection, particularly, was essential.

Fr Baggio’s office worked to protect people against issues like human trafficking, human rights violations and people smuggling.

He said illegal migrant smugglers were managing most of the migration in the world today.

“(People smugglers) enter because there’s a huge gain, and they say these days it’s more profitable … to smuggle migrants instead of smuggle drugs,” he said.

“Again all of this is a challenge for all of us,” he said, “it is calling us to fight … against the commodification of people.”

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Elderly homeless in paradise, 52 per cent rise in older women accessing crisis services

Next Post

Brisbane man ordained, Fr Joseph Murphy wants to build his priestly ministry around teaching

Joe Higgins

Related Posts

Pope says Church reform must originate in prayer, otherwise it is not of the Holy Spirit but of ‘groups’
Vatican

Pope says Church reform must originate in prayer, otherwise it is not of the Holy Spirit but of ‘groups’

15 April 2021
Sign language: Iris Martinez shares the sign of peace in American Sign Language during Mass at the St. Francis Borgia Deaf Center Aug. 16, 2020.
Vatican

Vatican launches two Sign Language programs on YouTube

13 April 2021
News

Bangladesh refugee camp fire leaves 45,000 people homeless and at least 15 people dead

26 March 2021 - Updated on 6 April 2021
Next Post

Brisbane man ordained, Fr Joseph Murphy wants to build his priestly ministry around teaching

Singing of God’s goodness – Order of Australia recipient Carmela Bozzi humbled by the accolade

Emmanuel Community is on a mission to evangelise, boldly spreading the Gospel in innovative ways

Popular News

  • March for Life set to attract big crowd opposed to abortion, euthanasia

    March for Life set to attract big crowd opposed to abortion, euthanasia

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Australian Bishops urge Catholics to get vaccinated amid push for more vaccine options

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • We head for Poland as pilgrims, not tourists

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Catholic laypeople in Cologne Archdiocese demand local synod

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • St Mark’s shows its ‘unity in diversity’ at 65th anniversary Mass

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Death penalty: Demonstrators are seen near the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., showing their opposition to the death penalty July 13, 2020. Photos: CNS
World

Global executions dropped in 2020 but fears China’s secret figures remain in the thousands

by Joe Higgins
21 April 2021
0

AMNESTY International recorded 483 executions in 18 countries during 2020, which was a decrease of 26 per...

Opportunity to help: “As a society we can’t leave them without a place to call home – not when there are urgent and economically sound solutions.”

‘They deserve our help’ – Brisbane youth homelessness on the rise with 42 per cent of homeless under 25 years old

21 April 2021

St Mark’s shows its ‘unity in diversity’ at 65th anniversary Mass

21 April 2021
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is seen near a picture of George Floyd in this courtroom sketch.

Bishops urge racial healing after former US police officer found guilty of killing George Floyd

21 April 2021
Health crisis: Referencing the Vatican document, the bishops said “it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process”.

Australian Bishops urge Catholics to get vaccinated amid push for more vaccine options

20 April 2021
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop
    Continue Shopping