A vade mecum for reception

Dioceses and parishes, families and religious communities welcome in about 1,600 facilities more than 22 thousand migrants among those in Italy. Although it has always been “at the forefront”, the Italian Church wants to do more to “expand the ecclesial network of hospitality the Church in favour of asylum seekers and refugees who arrive in our country, in compliance with of the present legislation and in collaboration with the institutions “. It does so with a Handbook, approved by the Permanent Council of the Bishops’ Conference, in response to the appeal of the Pope during the Angelus prayer of Sept. 6. The starting point is the awareness that the Church is not a “direct” agent of assistance, nor a “collateral” agent of the State’s actions in favour of migrants. During the Jubilee parishes, families, religious communities, shrines and monasteries will have the opportunity to “rediscover the relevance of spiritual and corporal works of mercy,” overcoming “the barrier of indifference”. The creation of a “first service of assistance” in ports and stations, for those migrants who continue their journey to another European country is one of the proposals of the document, which provides precise also legal, administrative and fiscal information. Information and formation. Where to start from in the migrants’ reception? Information comes first, even with the help of “communities and individuals present in Italy coming from the Countries of departure of asylum-seekers and refugees”. The second step is formation. Proposals include “the creation of a small team of experts at diocesan level and volunteers in parishes, and ensure their preparation at social, legal and administrative levels, coupled by pastoral and cultural formation, with a special focus on the reasons underlying forced migration”. Leading partners. “Reception of asylum-seekers in dioceses, in the parishes and in the family need to be accompanied and prepared, in the delicate human and legal aspects alike, by an institution in charge of handling relations with the administrative body in charge”. With these motivation the Italian Bishops’ Conference “confides that diocese with identify the leading partner of reception with all requisites for accreditation at the prefecture and participate in national tenders: a charity foundation, a services cooperative or any operative branch of diocesan Caritas or of Migrantes. Even a religious institution or a social or religious cooperative or Christian inspiration”. This organism will be tasked with “following all the procedures to obtain documents, the various administrative problems as well as the possible negative answers to asylum-requests”. The leading organism, through diocesan coordination entrusted to Caritas and Migrantes will receive the “requests of availability from the various ecclesial bodies” so as to assess “the destinations of the persons involved”. “Networking” commitments. The parish thus becomes “one of the venues and locations in charge of hospitality at national level, helping to build, around a small group of immigrants or a family, a network of closeness and solidarity”. For the CEI, “it’s a commitment” that “accompanies the migrant until he receives an answer to his asylum request, which will allow him to take part in a Sprar project or decide the next leg of his journey”. There is the possibility to choose one of three “different proposals” for migrant reception in parishes: free, but in convention with a managing organism agreed by the diocese and the prefecture; reimbursed by the leading organism, “that thus becomes a specific item of expense in the parish budget”, free and without accessing public funds, thanks to the support of Caritas or Migrantes. As for the facilities that welcome migrants, CEI recommends: “They must be in accordance with regulations and the parish must provide insurance for civil liability. If the hospitality activity takes place with features that under the current legislation are considered commercial the general scheme envisaged for these types of activities will be applied”. Finally CEI “will consider whether and how to assign a possible contribution to the dioceses particularly needy, who have had to adjust some areas to make them functional and fit for reception”. In the countries of departure. A thousand of small projects implemented in the home Countries of migrants fleeing from wars, hunger, environmental disasters, political and religious persecutions”. This is the commitment of the Italian bishops for the Jubilee, enhancing “international and missionary cooperation experiences”. Monitoring platform. “Monitoring in every diocese and care of information on experiences under way”. For this twofold reason CEI has set up a Monitoring Platform on the reception of asylum-seekers and refugees, with the participation of the Migrantes Foundation, Caritas Italy, Missio, Usmi, Cism, Pro-life movement, Astalli Centre, Pope John XIII association, CEI national office for social communications, the Office for Legal problems, the Office for the apostolate of the sea, CEI Legal and juridical Observatory.