Caritas and CEPAC strengthen their commitment to welcoming and integrating migrants
On 14 March, the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon hosted the meeting "The Church, a Place of Hope", an initiative part of the celebration of the Jubilee of Migrants.
During the event, four fundamental commitments were made for the integration of migrants, reflected in a Letter of Commitment available to be signed by everyone, inside and outside the Church. CEPAC - Centro Padre Alves Correia and Cáritas Diocesana de Lisboa also signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen a common strategy to support the migrant community living in the Lisbon Patriarchate.
The event brought together representatives of various Catholic and civil organisations committed to the cause of welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating migrants in Portugal.
At the opening session, the Patriarch of Lisbon, Bishop Rui Valério, emphasised the need for an "ethic of welcome", stressing that "the migrant is a gift that I have been given and that I thank God for". The Patriarch emphasised that Western society, and Lisbon in particular, is increasingly defined by the presence of migrants, which calls for a renewed commitment to hospitality and integration. "Migrants are all of us", he emphasised.
The meeting featured testimonies that emphasised the importance of support and solidarity. Norina Sohail, a student of Social and Cultural Communication at the Universidade Católica and an Afghan refugee, shared her experience of adapting to a new reality and praised the role of those who welcomed her. "If you have people who believe in humanity and who don't differentiate between religion and other things, all challenges will be accepted and overcome with a big smile", she said.
The director of the Portuguese Catholic Worker for Migration, Eugénia Costa Quaresma, emphasised the need to expand the work already carried out by the Church and warned that "we are at a point of no return: we can no longer think of the Church without migrants". In the same vein, Pedro Góis, director of the Migration Observatory, emphasised the importance of welcoming others, even when there are major cultural and social differences.
The Jubilee for Migrants came to a close on 16 March at the Estrela Basilica in Lisbon with the presentation of the Jubilee of Charity Cross to Caritas Diocesan of Lisbon, symbolising the Church's ongoing commitment to this cause. Caritas and CEPAC thus reinforce the call for a dignified and humane welcome, in a joint effort to guarantee the effective inclusion of migrants in Portuguese society.