Learn Spanish!post from the blog, Catching Light, by Muriel Schmid
“And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:19)
This year’s Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD) were entitled “A World Uprooted: Responding to Migrants, Refugees and Displaced People.” For four days, representatives from different Christian denominations gathered in Washington D.C. to reflect on the experience of the migrants and how, as Christian, we are to respond to it. “Compassionately,” was the resounding cry from all of us!
God’s revelation in the Judeo-Christian tradition is deeply rooted in the reality of the migrants. The Bible is written around several experiences of exile, bondage, and displacement. Deuteronomy 10 reminds the Israelites now settled in their Promised Land that they, too, were displaced and enslaved; their relationship to others and to God stems from this foundational past. Similarly, Jesus’ family, according to Matthew, flees persecution for the land of Egypt and Jesus himself speaks of errancy without a place to rest: “foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20)
According to the UN Refugee Agency, approximately 65.6 million people are being forcibly displaced across the globe, the highest number ever recorded. Despite some fears, very few of them end up at our door; the African continent is the most affected by displacement, with Ethiopia and Uganda being the two top countries to host refugees. For instance, according to the Migration Policy Institute, “18,007 Syrian refugees were resettled in the United States between October 1, 2011 [the beginning of the war] and December 31, 2016” whereas “close to 4.9 million Syrians had been registered as refugees as of early January [2017]; the vast majority are in first-asylum countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq” and “nearly 900,000 Syrians have headed to Europe and filed asylum claims there since the war began.” To date, the U.S. has accepted only 11 Syrian refugees in 2018.
Participants in the EAD discussed the role of our Christian voice in the current context. We all spent the last day of our gathering on the Hill in D.C., presenting our ask to various representatives in Congress. The ask was conveyed as clearly as possible:
“We call on Congress to act with compassion and exercise fiscal responsibility by redirecting funding used for deportations, detention and border militarization, and invest instead in our communities and support for refugees while increasing poverty-focused and peacebuilding international assistance to address the root causes of forced migration.”
During one of our preparatory plenaries, Dr. Elizabeth Ferris made some important points:
- Facts and myth busting do not work, only personal encounters are transformative and will help U.S. citizens to hear the plight of migrants;
- Refugees are not victims, but survivors, heroes! We need to change the narrative in order to truly and fully welcome them;
- The U.S. has a global voice and more than ever, the world needs to hear alternative voices coming from the U.S.;
- People of faith need to call politicians to higher moral standards.
…But it takes years of forgetting
for a stranger
to breathe the saltwater
or glance at a pile of stones
& say
I arrived through this portal
This is now my home… (~Adrian Castro)
We are all responsible for finding ways to question prejudice and change the narrative. As Christians, we are responsible for responding to the call of welcoming and honoring the stranger. JustFaith Ministries’ 8-week program, Exploring Migration, is one way among many that can help your community to pause and find words.Read the rest of the blog post here.
JustFaith Ministries has fully revised JustFaith Catholic and updated its material to include Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’. Compassion for one another, compassion for the world and the whole creation are now at the heart of JustFaith Catholic. Gather a group in your parish and commit to this 24-week spiritual journey, exploring your faith and how to transform the world around you.
For more information, visit our page and register for our new JustFaith.
shared by our partners at Bread for the WorldAct Now to Help Renew the Global Food Security Act.
In 2016, Bread for the World members lobbied Congress to pass the Global Food Security Act (GFSA)—the U.S. government’s whole-of-government program to reduce global hunger and malnutrition. Through agricultural innovation and a focus on nutrition, we have seen a 19% drop in poverty and a 26% reduction in child stunting in target countries.
The work must continue. Call (800-826-3688) or email your members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor the Global Food Security Reauthorization Act. To learn more about Bread for the World’s response to GFSA and how you can help click here.
Maryknoll Sister, Sr. Delia Marie (Dee) Smith, M.M., has been on mission in Guatemala for 25 years, she co-founded Proyecto Vida (Project Life) which provides support for people who are HIV+ and a hospice for those with AIDS. The project offers help to those with nowhere else to turn—those whose lives can be extended by decades through medical and drug treatment, and those in need of peace and dignity as they face the end of this life.
To learn more about Sister Dee’s mission work and how you can help, click here.
EL SALVADOR, November 30 – December 9, 2018
Deadline for signups: July 30, 2018
See flyer for more details.
For more JustFaith Ministries stories, visit our blogs:
- Catching Light: a blog by Muriel Schmid, Director of Programs
- Mosaic: a blog by Cory Lockhart
- Still in the Storm: a blog by Joe Grant
- In the Storm Still: a companion blog by Joe Grant
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JustFaith Ministries
PO Box 221348
Louisville, Kentucky 40252, United States
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