Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

People on the Move

N° 101, August 2006

Greetings to the members of SECIS (Foreign Students)

assembled for their annual meeting

Archbishop Agostino MARCHETTO

Secretary of the Pontifical Council

for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People 

On the occasion of your annual meeting* I am happy to send you my warm greetings, also on behalf of our President, H.E. Card.Renato Raffaele Martino.

You have come together these days fundamentally to follow-up and study the concrete applications of the Conclusions of the Second World Congress of the Pastoral Care for Foreign Students. This is good news for our Pontifical Council.

Our Second World Congress has stressed the link of your specific pastoral care with the phenomenon of migration in general, and with the Instruction EMCC in particular. This certainly has a scientific and cultural outlook, which is a challenge, both to humanity and to the Church. Today, in fact, we are called to overcome the barriers of language, culture and religion, and to listen to the urgent human and ecclesial invitation to enter into religious dialogue and undergo a process of mutual enrichment.

The phenomenon of student mobility has intensified in these last decades. At the same time the ChurchÂÂ’s pastoral interest and involvement in this specific sector has grown, even if we can see that the ideal diakonia and solidarity are still far away. The need for a specific pastoral care for foreign students, in any case, arises from the concrete problems and common difficulties they encounter, being far from their countries of origin and living in a foreign environment. Moreover foreign students in general, and specifically those from the Third World, experience great economic difficulties. All this deserves our special and careful attention.

As you begin this Conference we assure you our prayers, with our affection. May your work be fruitful in the company of Jesus, the Teacher, the Lord, who will bless all of you abundantly.