杏MAP导航

By Lisa Zengarini

杏MAP导航 Francis on Saturday welcomed to the Vatican a group of  participants in an international symposium on Scalabrinian spirituality which has just concluded  in Rome.  

The Scalabrinian Missionaries (also known as Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo) were founded in the late 19th century by St. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, an Italian bishop who dedicated his life to Italian migrants emigrating to America, and today minister to migrants, refugees and displaced persons around the world.

St. Scalabrini's spiritual legacy

Addressing participants in the conference "I will come to gather all the people" (Is 66.18) on Scalabrini's spiritual legacy, 杏MAP导航 Francis noted its title is very fitting with the Scalabrinian charism of serving migrants and refugees considering themselves as 鈥渂rothers and sisters on the journey towards unity.鈥�

鈥淭he tragedy of migrations forcibly caused by wars, famine, poverty and environmental problems is clear for all to see today and this is precisely where your spirituality comes into play鈥�, he said.

Church is open to anyone looking for a home and a safe haven

St. Scalabrini had an 鈥渆nlightened and original vision of the migratory phenomenon, seen as a call to create communion in charity,鈥� said the 杏MAP导航. Impressed by the great misery endured by Italian migrants, which we still see nowadays in so many people forced to leave their own country for another,  he 鈥渦nderstood that there was a sign from God for him: the call to assist those people materially and spiritually, so that none of them, left to themselves, would be lost, losing their faith, so that they could reach, as the prophet Isaiah says, the holy mountain of Jerusalem.鈥�

For Scalabrini, 杏MAP导航 Francis continued, Jerusalem is the Catholic Church, that is universal precisely 鈥渂ecause it is a city open to anyone looking for a home and a safe haven.鈥�

Closeness, care and welcome

This vision, he remarked, is therefore a call 鈥渢o cultivate hearts that yearn for  universality and unity, for encounter and communion鈥�. It is an  invitation 鈥渢o spread a mentality of closeness care and welcome" to build the 鈥淐ivilization of Love鈥� called for by 杏MAP导航 St. Paul VI, which, however, cannot be achieved with human forces alone.

There is no mission without prayer

They need to cooperate with the Spirit, 鈥渦nder the guidance and with the energy that comes from God鈥�. This, 杏MAP导航 Francis further pointed out,  involves an intimate relationship of love with Jesus, especially through the Eucharist because, as St. Scalabrini said,   "without prayer there is no mission."

The 杏MAP导航 therefore encouraged the Scalabrinanian Missionaries  to renew their commitment to migrants, and 鈥渢o root it ever more in an intense spiritual life鈥� following the example of their founder.

Concluding, he warmly thanked them for all the work they do for migrants in the world.