Taipei (AsiaNews) - “Our primary task is to raise awareness within the Church and society. Because migrants are not merely a threat or a danger, as the current narrative – shaped by fear – would have it; they are brothers and sisters fleeing situations of war and poverty, and they must be welcomed into the local Churches.”
Fr Leonir Mario Chiarello, Superior General of the Missionaries of St Charles – known worldwide as the Scalabrinians, after their founder, the Italian bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini – commented to AsiaNews on the significance of the meeting that concluded yesterday in Taipei, which brought together those responsible for migrant pastoral care from the Churches of Asia and Oceania that form the Scalabrinians’ St Frances Cabrini Province.
The two-day event, organised in collaboration with the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development, brought together bishops and heads of episcopal commissions from Australia, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, East Timor, Indonesia, Japan and India, with the aim of strengthening ecclesial collaboration and defining common strategies to address the challenges of human mobility today. “It was our last chapter that launched the idea of promoting this type of meeting. They had already held one in São Paulo for Latin America. It is a concrete way of being a synodal Church.”
The meeting in Asia was organised with the support of Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Embassy of the Republic of China to the Holy See. Taiwan, moreover, is an extremely significant place today from which to examine the reality of migration in this region of the world: without the contribution of around 1 million foreign workers, in fact, even for a country that the semiconductor boom is driving to record GDP growth of 11 per cent this year, it would be impossible to achieve these results. Bringing the local Church’s experience to the discussions over the past few days were Bishop Martin Su Yao-Wen of Taichung, who is responsible for the pastoral care of migrants within the Taiwanese Bishops’ Conference, and Fr. Martin Ignacio Gutiérrez, Provincial Superior of the Scalabrinians for Asia and Australia, who leads the parish of St Christopher in Taipei – a focal point for migrants thanks to its Sunday Masses in English and Vietnamese, attended by thousands of Catholic foreign workers.
Other key figures during these days in Taiwan were Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, Bishop of Kalookan and Vice-President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), and Pascale Debane, Regional Coordinator for Asia, the Middle East and Oceania at the Dicastery for Integral Human Development.
During the meeting, discussions centred on strengthening collaboration between the Episcopal Conferences and the Scalabrinians in supporting migrants, refugees, seafarers, fishermen and their families. Priorities include safeguarding the rights of migrant workers, addressing their vulnerable circumstances, protecting those employed in the maritime sector, and supporting families separated by the experience of migration.
In keeping with the legacy of St John Baptist Scalabrini, founder of the congregation and ‘father of migrants’, the meeting also emphasised the value of migration not only as a social and humanitarian phenomenon, but also as a missionary reality that challenges the Church. Migrants, in fact, are not merely recipients of pastoral care, but key players in evangelisation and in building more welcoming, inclusive and supportive communities.
“By walking alongside migrants, refugees and people on the move, the Church renews its missionary identity and makes visible the Gospel of fraternity, hospitality and hope,” said Fr Ignacio Gutiérrez, recounting the experience in Taipei.
The presence at the meeting of representatives from the Church of East Timor was also particularly significant, as the Scalabrinians are preparing to establish a presence there in the coming months. The aim is to accompany migrants not only in their host countries but also within their home Churches. “It is a pastoral commitment to raise awareness amongst those who leave, as we already do in other countries such as the Philippines,” explains Fr Chiarello. “Advocacy for their rights, but also a presence to maintain strong ties. Even the Cardinal of Dili, Virgilio di Carmo da Silva, has travelled to visit East Timorese communities in Korea, Japan and Australia.... This is an important cause to which we wish to contribute.”
