Overcoming Fear and Anxiety
A few years ago I was ministering in a parish in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Paris. I was a parish priest and at the same time leading the Divine Mercy Apostolate movement of our Pallottine Region in France. The goal of this movement is to spread devotion to the Merciful Jesus by organizing prayer and formation meetings, publishing books, pamphlets and pictures.... Walking to church for one of the prayer meetings organized by the Apostolate of Mercy, I passed migrants living on the street around the church. There were really hundreds of them, and among them were women and children, including pregnant women! Preaching that evening about God's mercy, I felt very uncomfortable: a moment ago you passed by homeless migrants and refugees sitting on the ground, and now you are trying with words to convince the faithful gathered for prayer that God is merciful and leans over everyone, especially the poor, the suffering, the little ones... That evening made me realize that I cannot remain confined within the walls of the church and rectory. The Pope calls for the proclamation of the Risen Christ in the periphery, that is, in places where there is no God, but also in the so-called existential periphery marked by material poverty, spiritual poverty, loneliness, sadness, illness, suffering, indifference, rejection… These peripheries were around our church. I began to go around the streets of the parish every day to meet homeless migrants, the vast majority of them newcomers from Africa. After a while, a group of parishioners formed and began not only to visit the homeless but also to help them. Many took up residence in the parish, while the children went to Catholic schools. Our Pallottine parish began to be known in Paris for its help to migrants. But there was also a lot of criticism: "we already have too many migrants", "your help encourages others to come". I am not in favor of migration. People should not have to leave their families and homes and travel far, often at the risk of their lives, to seek a better life. Pope Francis mentions this in his Encyclical Fratelli Tutti (38-39): Emigrants "experience separation from their environment of origin and often cultural and religious uprooting. The rupture of contact also affects the communities of origin, which lose the most energetic and enterprising members, and families, especially in the case of the migration of one or both parents leaving their children in their country of origin". Therefore, "before the right to emigrate, it is necessary to realise the right not to emigrate, that is, to be able to stay in one's own land". The charitable and educational work of the missionaries, including those of the Pallottines, and their assistance to the poor in countries affected by war or poverty, is intended precisely so that people can look to the future with confidence, staying at home and among their own. This is also the meaning of, for example, the action "Adoption of the Heart", run by the Pallottines in Poland, which consists in helping children from poorer families in some missionary countries. Donors help the children by paying for their schooling, financing the purchase of school materials, food, necessary medicines and anything else that is necessary at a given time for the development of a particular child. Currently, 3,500 children are covered by this action. The Region of Divine Mercy joined in this action: on the occasion of its 75th anniversary, a solemn jubilee celebration was dispensed with, offering 75 annual scholarships for the children. Pope Francis, like his predecessors, continues to call for a fairer and more solidarity-based world. On 23 September this year, he will be present in Marseille for the conclusion of the Mediterranean Encounter. The event will bring together Catholic bishops, representatives of other Churches and young people of all faiths to discuss the challenges facing the Mediterranean region. And these challenges are many: geopolitical, socio-economic, environmental and precisely migration challenges. In the face of these challenges, we Christians are called to mobilize. How? First of all, by praying for illuminating reflections to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and by acting as Christ would have done in the face of these problems. Unfortunately, many of our brothers and sisters are still forced to migrate. In the history of the Church, concrete assistance to migrants and refugees is not new. In the prayer and works of the Church there has always been a special place for those who have had to leave their own, who live in a foreign land, who suffer. By caring for the excluded, the poor, the weak, something of the face of Christ is revealed to us." The Church's action in favor of the weakest, the excluded, has its origin in the life and teaching of Christ himself, but already in the Old Testament we read: "A stranger, settled among you, you shall regard as a native. You shall love him as yourselves, for you too were sojourners in the land of Egypt" (Lev 19:32-34). Working in a Paris parish and developing the work of helping migrants and refugees, I have met Christians, including even priests or nuns, who have pointed out that this help is sometimes morally questionable because some of them have arrived illegally and have no right of residence. It is therefore necessary to keep reminding people that the Church is not there to make laws that states must enact. But the Church must proclaim, also through charitable works towards migrants, that there is an impassable red line, which is the limit of respect for human dignity. The Church is the one who reminds us that human dignity is inviolable, from conception to natural death. This dignity is also inviolable when a foreigner arrives on our soil. It is not up to us to decide whether they legally have the right to stay or not. No matter what. Every person must be treated with dignity. Even one who is on the territory of a country illegally. Helping such persons is not an exhortation to disobey the laws of the state, but is a prophetic cry that for the love of one's neighbor there are no limits. Sometimes extending a helping hand to a migrant may be considered illegal by the law, but it is an obligation to our humanity. This, incidentally, is what the headmaster of a Catholic school in Paris, who collaborated with us, said, when accused of taking in migrant minors residing in France illegally: "maybe what I am doing is illegal, but it is loyal to our humanity and to our faith". While claiming the right to unconditionally care for migrants and refugees in need, the Church does not call for breaking the law, but reminds us that no law can put a limit to love of neighbors. So before we consider the presence of migrants and refugees in any territory, we first have a duty to care for them. This is probably what Jesus Christ would have done, this is what Vincent Pallotti would have done too. Because the poor, the migrants, the refugees are like the tabernacle in which Christ is present. If that needy person is before me, it is because the Lord has given him to me as a neighbor that he is entrusted to me so that I can take care of Him. This is not always easy. In our societies, communities and families, there are fears that the newcomer, especially the poor, 'stranger' who needs help, is a threat to my well-being, to my future, to my values. "What remains today is faith, hope and charity; but of these three the greatest is charity," reads St Paul the Apostle's letter to the Corinthians. Mercy is a word that refers directly to love, the source of which is God himself. This is how I distinguish mercy from solidarity or humanitarianism. By doing good in the name of solidarity or humanitarianism, I am doing something good for another, for one who is in need. An act of mercy, on the other hand, is allowing Christ to express His love for each person through our concrete actions. It is also expressing our love to Christ by leaning on my brother or sister: "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" (Matt 25:40). By opening myself to a refugee or migrant, I open myself to Christ. By seeing the dignity of the person in the refugee and migrant, I also see it in myself. Through this, we grow together. Saint Vincent Pallotti understood this perfectly. And he did not remain here only in the realm of fine words and theories. In 1844, he sends one of his companions, Fr Rafael Melia, from Rome to minister among the Italian emigrants living in London. Two years later he was joined by Joseph Faa di Bruno. They begin efforts to build a church dedicated to St Peter, which would become a center of not only spiritual and moral, but also social and material help for Italian emigrants. One could even say that the Pallottine mission among the Italians in London was the prototype of the pastoral action undertaken in the name of the Church and at the request of Pope Pius IX himself. In fact, it found recognition in the Apostolic Constitution of Pius XII on the spiritual care of emigrants (Exsul Familia) of 1 August 1952. In it, Pope Pacelli writes as follows: "We feel it a pleasant duty to mention the person of Blessed Vincent Pallotti, founder of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate. For we ourselves called him 'the glory and adornment of the Roman clergy', including him in the luminous company of the Blessed when the Jubilee celebrations of the universal Church began. It was he who, driven by love of souls and a desire to consolidate the faith among the Italians emigrating to England, directed many members of his congregation to London to undertake the spiritual care of his compatriots there" (no. 13). In 1884, Fr Emiliano Kirner, a Pallottine of German origin, set off for the United States, where he organized the first parish for Italians, building a shrine to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In time, this shrine would become a point of reference for all Italian migrants in the United States and a place around which various works of social assistance would be developed. Already two years later, in 1886, a dozen Pallottine confreres began their ministry among Italian migrants in Uruguay and Brazil. Maintaining religious customs, culture and the Italian language, the Pallottines did not undertake only the pastoral care for Italian migrants. They also contributed to the emergence of new cities, which even in their names remain very Italian: Santa Maria, Nova Treviso, Nova Palma or Palotina (see Fr. Stanislaw Stawicki, Holy Fathers of Migrants) Pallotti wrote: "Whoever abides in love (that is, whoever practices acts of love) remains in God and God in him. If, therefore, one wishes to abide in God and desires God to be in him, he must abide in love (that is, he must abide in the practice of love). Love concerns God and neighbor. Thus friend or foe, Catholic or heretic, pagan or infidel, Christian or Jew, compatriot or foreigner of any nation on earth - is our neighbor" (OO CC, III, p. 152). Today, in the many countries where members of the Union of the Catholic Apostolate, spiritual disciples of Pallotti, minister, there are hundreds of thousands of foreigners: refugees from war, persecution or poverty. How do we express to them, both individually and communally, the love and care of which Pallotti wrote and which he concretely showed by sending Rafael Melia 179 years ago to care for migrants? The positive effects of this courageous decision are still bearing fruit today. May Saint Vincent Pallotti, by his intercession and example, help us to overcome our fears and apprehensions so that, in building the Kingdom of God, we do not stop at enjoying a certain security and complacency, but know how to accept risks and face new challenges with confidence.
