Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

People on the Move

N° 101, August 2006

VII CCEE MIGRATION CONGRESS (with special attention to nomads)

on MIGRATION FROM EASTERN TO WESTERN EUROPE*

The Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE)’ Commission on Migrations organized a Congress in Stubičke Toplice (Croatia) from 20^th till 23^rd October 2005. The President of the Commission is Bishop Louis Pelâtre, Apostolic Vicar of Istanbul, and its Secretary is Fr. Hans Vöcking. It was the Commission’s seventh Congress on migrations. This type of meeting is held every third year. The general theme of the Congress was Migration from Eastern to Western Europe.

Forty-three delegates from twenty-one countries were present (Albania, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, England and Wales, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine - Latin and Byzantine rite Catholics. The CCEE has nowadays 34 members). Among them there were ten Bishops and several national directors with responsibility for pastoral care of migrants and Gypsies in Europe. Some Bishops could not be present as they were attending the Synod. It was the first time that national directors of the pastoral care of Gypsies were invited to the Congress. This may be due to the fact that among the migrants from east to west there is a good number of Gypsies. Some experts were also invited. Mrs. Livia Járóka, a Hungarian Gypsy and Member of the European Parliament, also intervened during the Congress.

Msgr. Anthony Chirayath was invited to present a paper on Gypsies in Europe – Recommendations of the Budapest Congress 2003. It should be remembered that a preparatory meeting was held at the offices of the Pontifical Council for Culture last December (17-18), in which Archbishop Agostino Marchetto and Msgr. Anthony Chirayath took part. In their discussions, the delegates focused on the influx of migrants into Western Europe, which includes both Gypsies and skilled workers (academics), resulting in the so-called "brain drain", which is an additional element in the impoverishment of many eastern European nations. Also this theme was treated.

Bishop Pelâtre welcomed the participants in a brief introduction after the dinner on the 20^th and Fr. Vöcking presented the agenda. Then there was the self-introduction of the participants. On the 21^st morning, Bishop Pelâtre presided over the concelebrated Mass in a church in the neighbourhood. At 9:00 a.m. there was the official inauguration of the Congress with the participation of the Croatian ecclesiastical and civil authorities.

In the name of the Government of Croatia the Vice-President of the Council of Ministers welcomed the participants. She said that Croatia has a great history of migration and even today the majority of Croatians live abroad. In any case, many are returning to the fatherland after Croatia became a free state. She said that trafficking in human beings is a big problem in her country and that her government is trying to prevent it. Then it was the turn of the President of the Region to speak. 

Bishop Marko Culej, who is the Episcopal Promoter for the pastoral care of Gypsies in Croatia, the Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference and the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, also welcomed the gathering on behalf of the local Church. Bishop Culej said that there are 5000 Gypsies in his diocese, mostly Catholics. They are integrated into local parishes. His Commission recently published a catechism in two Gypsy languages, which were distributed among the Congress participants.

Later Msgr. Chirayath presented his paper. After a forty-five-minute conference he answered the questions from the floor for about fifteen minutes. He summed up as top priorities of the Gypsy ministry the following: hospitality (welcoming), education and professional training of Gypsy children and youth, and their “right” to nomadism.

In the panel discussion that followed, Fr. Claude Dumas, National Director of France, presented the results of his enquiry on the situation of Gypsies in Europe. He said that very few countries answered the questionnaire, but the problems are very clear. There is a flow of Gypsies from the east, especially from Romania and they belong to the Orthodox Church. Proselytism of the Pentecostals among the Catholic Gypsies is taking away from this Church a large number of them. The Gypsies who migrate from Bosnia and Herzegovina are mainly Moslems. Therefore there is a need for ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue.

Mrs. Livia Járóka was the next speaker showing a passionate love for her people. She said that the Catholic Church has always given shelter to Roma and that only priests are going to the Gypsy camps to visit them. According to her, out of fifteen million Gypsies living in Europe, one million are migrants. Half of them could be defined as economic migrants and half are refugees. She invited also to speak about similarities rather than differences. She added that local governments would not do anything for Roma fearing to offend the people. The governments are looking for votes only. In any case Prime Ministers of eight countries have signed the Decade of Roma. So she hoped, because of this, something would be done. It was not difficult to agree with all that she said. 

In the absence of Bishop Petru Gherghel, who was attending the Synod, Fr. Martin Cabals spoke about the Romanian Gypsies. He said that there are two million Gypsies in Romania, 90% of whom are Orthodox. Baptism and funeral are the only two occasions when they go to church. In any case it is difficult to have an ecumenical collaboration with the Orthodox Church, which accuses the Catholics of proselytism. However what is important is to look for a way that unites both Churches in the human and pastoral promotion of Gypsies. Sr. Karolina, National Director of Croatia, said that there are 12,000 Gypsies in Croatia, most of whom are Catholics and some Moslems. She took the occasion of presenting the two catechism books in Gypsy languages.   

Later on, five working groups met on the linguistic base. Here are some of the observations that came out of the working groups: in the Czech Republic are living 20,000 Gypsies, with only few priests taking care of them, with some animators. Of course they love pilgrimages and would like to see bishops visiting them once in a while. In Spain there are 800,000 Gypsies; so after Romania, Spain is the country with the biggest Gypsy population in Europe. There are, therefore, diocesan offices for the care of Gypsies and many religious men and women are engaged in the Gypsy apostolate.

The French group recommended that the Church recognize their right to proper identity. Gypsies wanted more pilgrimages also in France. The German group stressed the point that it would be good to have personal parishes for Gypsies. It was also said that the Church should intervene to defend Gypsies through the media. The English group attested that the Church should play a major role in advocacy to promote the human and pastoral care of Gypsies. For the Italian group there should be more dialogue and the catechism books should make evident the positive side of Gypsies. Bishop José Sanchez Gonzales from Spain added that it is time to think about personal parishes or the creation of vicariates for Gypsies, without taking away their being members of the local Church. Bishop Field, Aux. of Dublin, shared the same opinion.

The second day began with a concelebrated Mass presided over by Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue, Bishop of Lancaster. The day was fully dedicated to migration of skilled labour or to the question of “brain drain” from east to west. About this problem there were two conferences. Mrs. Jelena Hoffman spoke about the juridical, political and economic aspects of migration in Europe and Dr. Roman Radwanski (KAAD) spoke about the ethical aspects of “brain drain”. Both were taking into consideration the situation in Germany.

For Mrs. Hoffman there are three million Turkish immigrants in Germany, 122,000 in Berlin alone, and their process of integration is very slow with increasing criminality. The young people are deprived of any hope. Many Jewish immigrants are coming from Russia, but the number of asylum seekers is decreasing. In any case the foreign population is much younger than the German one in some cities. In certain places 30/40% of the population are immigrants even if not all immigrants are treated in the same way. The Ukrainians get visa easily to Germany, but from that country they go to Portugal and work there for some time. In any case some Russian immigrants are living in ghettos in Germany. It is worthy to note that in Spain 70% of Gypsy children reach the university level. In this context we must consider that in Germany Italians have their own schools, but whether this is helping their integration is another question. In Switzerland, Tamils are the best integrated immigrants.    

Dr. Roman Radwanski (KAAD) spoke about the ethical aspects of “brain drain”. He works with the Catholic organization for funding of young scholars from developing countries. His organization gives every year six hundred scholarships for students coming from sixty countries (130 are from eastern Europe). So far 7000 students from 117 countries have benefited from this programme. Two million students have left their countries for educational reasons. Most students, in Germany, come from Poland, Bulgaria and Russia with a twenty percent increase from Bulgaria. Many of them are Catholics. In any case, there is a strict criterion for funding, because KAAD is strongly for the re-entry of the students in their countries, after their studies. They should become leaders in the local Church!

In the panel discussion that followed Bishop Edward Janiak from Poland, Fr. Henry Veldkamp from Albania, Fr. Rui Manuel da Silva Pedro from Portugal and Dr. Ladislaus Vencser from Austria took part. Msgr. Janiak said that we should speak not only about food and employment, but we should speak about spiritual matters as well. In his diocese there are 900 priests, of whom 260 are working outside the country, among whom eighty priests are serving in Germany.

Fr. Veldkamp said that the Holy See created the hierarchy in his country only twelve years ago and for forty years people were taught against God and the Church. In any case his people find it difficult to get a visa through proper channels and this creates illegal migrants. Fr. Da Silva said that five million Portuguese are living outside his country, which welcomed 470,000 immigrants. They come from Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde. He attested that some Ukrainian doctors are working in the construction sector. For eighty immigrant doctors the Church has managed to get their diplomas recognized by the State. The same is the case with foreign nurses. According to Dr. Vencser “brain drain” is a great loss for the local Church.

From the discussion it appeared that there are 200,000 Ukrainian immigrants of Byzantine Rite living in Italy (ninety organized communities). In Brussels eighty nationalities have their own Mass and this seems not good for the local Church, because the immigrants should contribute to the benefit also of the local Church.

The conclusions of the group discussions were the following: the German groups said that there should be better collaboration among different organizations in welcoming skilled workers and the Church of origin should recognize their potentials when they return. The French group manifested the conviction that the contribution of the skilled workers to the welcoming Church should be recognized. The Italian group said that the influx from east to west should be an opportunity for better ecumenical dialogue. The English group attested that “brain drain” is a financial gain for the welcoming country and the role of the Church should be to raise awareness of its consequences in the developing countries. The Church also should have proper pastoral structures to deal with this situation.

On 23^rd morning some recommendations were proposed. The final ones will be published later on. Regarding Gypsies, some of the recommendations were the following: the local Churches should engage themselves in favour of Gypsies and they should raise awareness among their faithful regarding the problems of Gypsies; the local Churches should also study the concrete situations of the Gypsies in their dioceses and parishes and respond adequately and they should encourage dialogue between the Gypsies and non-Gypsies and they should make use of the media to give a positive image of Gypsies, engaging themselves in advocacy.

Regarding “brain drain”, the recommendations were the following: the Churches of origin and the welcoming Churches should share their experiences; the welcoming Church should welcome qualified pastoral agents from the Church of origin; the welcoming Churches should realize that the integration of the skilled personnel from eastern and Central Europe is an enrichment; the Episcopal Conferences and Catholic organizations should remind the governments and institutions of their responsibilities towards the skilled workers.

The Congress ended with a solemn concelebrated Mass presided over by Cardinal Josip Bozanić, Archbishop of Zagreb, who is also one of the two Vice-Presidents of CCEE.  

Two things were quite evident during the Congress, that is: firstly, there is a growing awareness among the Episcopal Conferences about the urgency of an organised pastoral care for Gypsies in Europe and we have to recognise that the Budapest Congress 2003 was a milestone in the Church’s response to this problem; secondly, there were frequent mentions about the document “Erga migrantes caritas Christi” (The Love of Christ towards Migrants) during the Congress. It was quoted now and then, with a general appreciation for this document. Somebody added that it is a very important document of the Holy See.  

Rev. Msgr. Anthony CHIRAYATH