World Day of Migrants and Refugees will
be celebrated on January 15 with theme, "Child Migrants, the Vulnerable and the Voiceless."
Pope Francis has written his Message for the occasion
last September 8, 2016.
He began with the text, “Whoever receives one such child in my name
receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me” (Mk 9:37; cf. Mt 18:5; Lk 9:48; Jn 13:20).
“With these words, the Evangelists remind the Christian community of
Jesus’ teaching, which both inspires and challenges. This phrase traces the sure path which leads to
God; it begins with the smallest and, through the grace of our Saviour, it
grows into the practice of welcoming others. To be welcoming is a necessary condition for making this journey
a concrete reality: God made himself one of us. In Jesus God became a child, and the openness of faith to
God, which nourishes hope, is expressed in loving proximity to the smallest and
the weakest. Charity, faith and hope are all actively present in the
spiritual and corporal works of mercy, as we have rediscovered during the
recent Extraordinary Jubilee.”
The Holy
Father said he felt “compelled to draw attention to the reality of child
migrants, especially the ones who are alone. He
called on everyone to help care for the children becaue of three reasons:
they are children, they are foreigners, and they have no means to protect
themselves.
Please read full Text: Click Here
The celebration is led by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.
Sr. Yvette Arnold, Good Shepherd Sisters' congregational secretary, also called on sisters and mission partners to help in the " wide distribution of the Pope's message– a message that speaks to our mission about the plight of so many young people in our world today."