The World Refugee Day fell on June 20. This particular day gives due tribute to the courage, strength and resolve of men, women and children who are constrained to escape their homeland which is under the continual menace of persecution, conflict and violence. Locally we have been  experiencing this tragic plight due to the numerous arrivals of irregular migrants from the North African territory over practically a span of ten years.

The presence of migrants on our shores pose an interesting challenge to us Maltese. So far we qualify ourselves as a predominantly Catholic country. Fully obedient to Jesus’ words: “I was a stranger and you

welcomed me” (Matt 25, 35), the Catholic Church never tires from speaking and acting in favour of migrants and refugees. When tackling human communion vis-à-vis the participation of Catholic faithful in social life, the Cathecism of the Catholic Church explicitly says that since the “human interdependence ... implies a universal common good, this good calls for an organisation of the community of nations able to ‘provide for the different needs of men.  This will involve the sphere of social life to which belong questions of food, hygiene, education, . . . and certain situations arising here and there, as for example. . . alleviating the miseries of refugees dispersed throughout the world, and assisting migrants and their families’” (no 1911).

The universal common good cannot be merely restricted to daily material needs. Man does not live by bread alone. The issue must be broadened even further up to the point of embracing the spiritual realm. As Pope Paul VI’s encylical, Evangelii Nuntiandi, which deals with the modern proclamation of the Gospel states, proclaiming Jesus Christ the one Saviour of the world “constitutes the essential mission of the Church. It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent” (§ 14).

In this year’s message for the World Day of migrants and refugees, Pope Benedict XVI emphasises the important role of the new evangelisation within the milieu of migration.  Migrants and refugees too are the addressees of the Good News of the Gospel that saves.

Saint Paul’s warning is all the more clear: “For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9, 16).

The continual mingling of the diversification of cultures and people is evermore calling for the authentic search of what is true and just.

Physical human mobility is also encouraging the spiritual mobility of the soul and spirit of the people who are on the move. In this perspective the Church is invited to intensify her missionary endeavour by channeling her evangelisation service both to the regions where the Good News is proclaimed for the first time as well as in those countries with a Christian tradition.

The contemporary phenomenon of migration is a providential occasion for a renewed proclamation of the redeeming message of the Gospel. The Holy Father said that “men and women from various regions of the earth who have not yet encountered Jesus Christ or know him only partially, ask to be received in countries with an ancient Christian tradition. It is necessary to find adequate ways for them to meet and to become acquainted with Jesus Christ and to experience the invaluable gift of

salvation which, for everyone, is a source of ‘life in abundance’ (cf. Jn 10:10)”.

Can we Maltese proclaim Jesus Christ to the migrants that come to our country by subscribing to the Christian way our faith urges us to treat them?

■ Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap