The Migrants and Refugees Section (M&R Section) is a section on
migrants and
refugees
A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution. included in the Vatican
Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (''Dicasterium ad integram humanam progressionem fovendam'' in Latin) is a dicastery of the Roman curia.
The Vatican announced the creation of the dicastery on 31 August 2016 and it becam ...
(IHD).
History
Appalled by the conditions and treatment of great numbers of migrants, refugees, displaced and trafficked persons, Pope Francis explained to several thousand representatives of Popular Movements in the Audience Hall on 5 November 2016 that "In the department
HDCardinal Peter Turkson heads, there is a section concerned with those situations. I decided that, at least for a while, that section would be directly under the Pope, because here we have a disgraceful situation that can only be described by a word that in
Lampedusa
Lampedusa ( , , ; scn, Lampidusa ; grc, Λοπαδοῦσσα and Λοπαδοῦσα and Λοπαδυῦσσα, Lopadoûssa; mt, Lampeduża) is the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea.
The ''comune'' of L ...
came spontaneously to my lips: shame." In mid-December, he named
Michael Czerny
Michael F. Czerny (born 18 July 1946) is a Czechoslovakian-born Canadian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development since 23 April 2022, after serving as interim prefect for sev ...
S.J., a Canadian
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
, and
Fabio Baggio
Fabio Baggio CS (born 15 January 1965) is an Italian Catholic priest. Since 2017, he has served as one of the Vatican's officials in charge of migrants and refugees. He has spent his career as a missionary, including eight years in Latin America ...
C.S, an Italian
Scalabrinian, to serve as under-secretaries of IHD to be "occupied specifically in the care of migrants and refugees."
While under the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the M&R Section is "directly under guidance" of Pope Francis since its creation "for the time being", following the will of Francis.
Purpose
"The M&R Section's primary mission is to support the Church – locally, regionally, internationally – accompanying people at all stages of migration, especially those who are in one way or another forced to move or to flee." The Section's concern includes those who are compelled to migrate: asylum seekers, refugees, internally displaced people, as well as other international and internal migrants. It devotes particular attention to migrants who experience hardships and suffering in the countries of origin or destination or in transit: for example, people fleeing conflicts, persecutions and humanitarian emergencies (both natural and human-made), victims of human trafficking, migrants with irregular status, exploited migrant workers, and vulnerable migrant women, youth, and children.
During the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, the M&R section publishes weekly bulletins "aimed at sharing information and heightening awareness regarding problems, solutions and initiatives put into practice by the various Catholic actors who accompany vulnerable people and communities on the move."
References
External links
Official Website
Catholic missions
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