"The European and African bishops states father da Cunha acknowledge the complexity of the worldwide migratory phenomenon, which is a challenge and a call to the Church to pay it more attention". Migration, he explains, is not "a merely social issue, it is a pastoral issue as well", which covers multiple categories of migrants: refugees, students, people who come to look for a job". The message, explains the secretary of Ccee, says that "we must not regard migrants as a problem, but as God’s children, who have rights and who are a n asset for the countries that take them. Migrants are also a coming grace: for instance, in the European Churches, the African communities are the liveliest". So, each Bishops Conference is called to provide itself with "specialised centres for study, for receiving them, for a dedicated pastoral", especially one directed to "women and children, who are the most vulnerable". And the Churches are called "to be willing to lobby the state authorities and the international institutions to protect and defend the dignity of migrants". The bishops’ concerns, as emerged during the meeting but not directly covered by the message, include "the situation in Congo and Sudan, the food and financial crisis, the closing of the European borders, unemployment". (continued)
