Curso de Fundamentos Teológicos para una Pastoral de la Migración (Theological Foundations for a Pastoral Response to Migration).
On August 7, the Course on Theological Foundations for a Pastoral Response to Migration will begin. The CELAM Training Center, CEBITEPAL, and Duke University in the USA have partnered to offer this course. In an interview granted to ADN CELAM, the professor and priest Marco Strona, an Italian who lives in Guatemala, refers to this training space.
Vatican News
ADN CELAM interviewed Dr. Marco Strona, an Italian professor and priest who lives in Guatemala, concerning the new course on Theological Foundations for a Pastoral Response to Migration that began on August 7th. When asked about content of the course, Strona replied: “Migration and the treatment of persons who migrates constitutes, without any shadow of a doubt, one of the greatest problems, if not the greatest problem in the world today. A problem of this magnitude that affects the very heart of the entire world cannot be ignored as a task for theological reflection.
“Theology is a friend of life and remains attentive to all the factors that diminish and threaten life. The theologian is always ready to reflect upon what revelation has to say about questions such as the mobility of persons today.”
When asked about examples of the best practices of hospitality to the stranger in the course of history, Fr. Strona replied: “I will try to think about how the Church, in particular the Catholic Church, has been conscious of the phenomenon of migration from the outset. I will do so by showing key moments and figures: early Christianity (Fathers of the Church), the Middle Ages (St. Benedict and St. Francis as examples of cura hospitalitatis), the modern period (the Scalabrinians and the birth of their religious order); the contemporary period (Vatican II and the reform efforts of Pope Francis, especially with regard to migration in the Church).
Migration changes according to the circumstances
Moreover, with regard to the changing circumstances of migration, for example, in times of war, Marco Strona said: “Wars always increase the percentage of migrants and refugees. Unfortunately, the foreign and domestic policies of every country are not always in life with what the Gospel teaches. The war in the Ukraine is a surprising example. The neighboring countries have aptly opened their doors to refugees fleeing this war, but they were either closed or opened only with difficulty for the refugees from Syria and Afghanistan.
On that basis, Strona does not believe that one can “speak of a distinct migration, but rather of bad management on the part of individual states.” He was also asked about the “challenge” of fraternity in the case of migrants: “The phenomenon of migration, understood in the broadest sense of human mobility, can offer a fresh new image of society, one that emphasizes fraternity,
equality, and freedom of expression and allows for differences as well as diversity on the personal and communitarian level.
“A fully ‘catholic’ society, in which this adjective denotes respect and the acceptance of the gifts and particularities that the Spirit enkindles in each and every one of us.”
Creating an authentic culture of encounter
In his opinion, “one’s own departure [from one’s native land], migration,” “is seen as a path of sanctification for the individual and the community, an authentic form of entering into relation with others, for the sake of the greater glory of God, and in order to create an authentic culture of encounter.” Strona added: “The challenge consists in the transformation, better yet the transfiguration, of the border, from a place of death into a place that gives rise to fraternity.”
“The border can and must be changed into a place that nourishes the idea of open and dynamic reciprocity. It must be the place of “the God of surprises,” as at least Pope Francis likes to say in line with Ignatian mysticism. It is the place where the mysticism of encounter takes on flesh and becomes real, a mysticism that permits fraternity in an absolutely concrete form into a commitment for the social inclusion of the poor and for integral ecology.”
This course will take place from August 7th to November 19th, through synchronic meetings from 10am-noon, Colombian time, on the following dates: August 13th, 27th, September 10th, 24th, October 8th, 22nd, and November 5th, 19th. For more information, please contact cebitepalencontacto@celam.org or through WhatsApp: +57 3226800541.
Link in Spanish: Curso de Fundamentos Teológicos para una Pastoral de la Migración – Vatican News
