All bishops’ conferences in Europe and Africa are requested to establish, "if missing, special structures for studying migrations, for welcoming immigrants and taking pastoral care of them". They are also asked to play a "prophetic role of advocacy" in favour of immigrants, to encourage "the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations" to "promote and defend the rights and the dignity of both willing and unwilling migrants, everywhere in the world". In short, those were the most important points in the final message by the 21 bishops meeting in Liverpool from 19th to 23rd November, in the seminary about "Migrations, new room for evangelization and solidarity", set up by CCEE (Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences) and SECAM (Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar). The message, which has just been made known, recalls the joint path followed by African and European bishops in 2004, with the first programme meeting in Rome, then followed by a seminary in Elmina, Ghana, in 2007, on the subject of the new kinds of slavery. As announced in the text, the next appointments will be a planning meeting in Rome, in 2009, a joint seminary in Africa in 2010, and a worldwide conference in 2011. (To be continued)
