How can the Gospel be brought to immigrants? The question will be addressed by over 500 participants from dioceses all over Italy at the national conference with the title “All the peoples shall come to You. The mission Ad Gentes in our country”. Promoted – for the first time jointly – by three offices headed by the Italian Episcopal Conference (Migrantes Foundation, National Catechetical Office and National Office for Cooperation between the Churches), the conference will be held at Castelgandolfo (near Rome) from 25 to 28 February. Meanwhile Migrantes has issued a new document on the pastoral care of immigrants in recent days, emphasizing the “dual need” to “promote the process of integrating foreigners at the ecclesial, as well as at the civilian levels”. A decisive role in this sense is played by “liaison between the Church of arrival and the Church of departure”, the “periodic exchange of information”, bilateral meetings of bishops and reciprocal visits of exponents of the Churches. Data compiled by the Migrantes Foundation suggest that approximately 30% of immigrants present in Italy are Catholics; that’s equivalent to 500,000 out of a total of 1,700,000 regular immigrants, but the figure rises to 600,000 if irregular immigrants without residence permits are included in the equation.
