Abstract
The “refugee crisis” is one of the crucial phenomena of the twenty-first century in Europe, and beyond, for its social, political, cultural and religious implications. This essay reflects on how this “crisis”, and migration in general, even in its ambiguity and complexity and despite generating controversy and division within societies and Christian communities, has come to represent an urgent opportunity, and indeed a locus, for a much-needed ecclesial change today. Pope Francis, with his inspiring call for a much needed “pastoral and missionary conversion” (Evangelii Gaudium 25) of the church today and the four verbs approach to migrant and refugee ministry—welcoming, protecting, promoting, integrating—is identified as one of the main facilitators of this process.
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Notes
- 1.
Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 4 (December 7, 1965), http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html (accessed February 11, 2020).
- 2.
The contemporary classic of migration studies, Stephen Castles et al., The Age of Migration. International Population Movements in the Modern World, 6th ed. (London: Red Globe Press, 2020), 10, states that since World War II the “politicization and securitization of migration” is one of the main trends and patterns of global migration.
- 3.
Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (November 24, 2013), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html. (accessed February 11, 2020). Hereafter EG.
- 4.
Gerard Mannion, “Francis’ Ecclesiological Revolution. A New Way of Being Church a New Way of Being Pope,” in Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism. Evangelii Gaudium and the Papal Agenda, edited by Gerard Mannion (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 93–122.
- 5.
The texts by Pope Francis on this subject since the beginning of his papacy in 2013 to the end of 2019 have been collected, made available online and are constantly updated by the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Vatican under the title Lights on the Ways of Hope. See https://migrants-refugees.va/resource-center/collection/ (accessed February 11, 2020).
- 6.
Here we will simply mention Francis’ visits to some highly symbolic peripheries of the world indissolubly connected to migrants and refugees such as Lampedusa, Italy (July 8, 2013); Ciudad Juárez, Messico (February 18, 2016); Lesvos, Greece (April 16, 2016) with the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I and the Orthodox Archbishop of Athens Ieronymos.
- 7.
For examples of interpretation of this event from a religious and theological viewpoints, see Ulrich Schmiedel and Graeme Smith, eds., Religion in the European Refugee Crisis (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018); Gioacchino Campese, “‘Why Are You Afraid? Have You Still No Faith?’(Mk 4:40). Becoming a Pilgrim People of God,” in Challenged by Ecumenism. Documentation of the Global Ecumenical Theological Institute – Berlin 2017, edited by Uta Andrée et al. (Hamburg: Missionshilfe Verlag, 2018), 39–48; Gioacchino Campese, “A People of God Who Remembers. Theological Reflections on a ‘Refugee Crisis’,” in Migration and Public Discourse in World Christianity, edited by Afe Adogame et al. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2019), 215–27.
- 8.
The United Nation Refugee Agency (UNHCR) website lists at least 11 other situations of refugee emergency around the world, see https://www.unhcr.org/ (accessed February 11, 2020).
- 9.
See Maurizio Ambrosini, “Siamo Tutti un Po’ Trump. Come la Gestione dell’Immigrazione Accomuna le Due Sponde dell’Atlantico,” Regno Attualità 62, no. 4 (2017): 103–105.
- 10.
The UNHCR provides a regularly updated summary of the data about the refugee crisis in Europe; see https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean#_ga=2.123836426.1497874057.1580400452-382241407.1579284215 (accessed February 11, 2020).
- 11.
U. Schmiedel and G. Smith, “Conclusion: The Theological Takeover,” Religion, 2018: 300–303. As an example of researches conducted to understand the impact of migration, and in particular of the refugee crisis, on the Christian communities in Europe, see F.-V. Anthony, “Italian Christian community vis-à-vis Immigrants. The Challenge of Evangelical Hospitality,” Salesianum 81 (2019): 233–247.
- 12.
Mannion, “Francis’ Ecclesiological Revolution,” 99.
- 13.
Stephen B. Bevans – Roger P. Schroeder, Constants in Context. A Theology of Mission for Today (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2004), 7. These two authors have begun to develop a missionary ecclesiology in Stephen B. Bevans – Roger P. Schroeder, “Missionary Ecclesiology: Evangelica, Ecumenical, and Catholic Developments in ‘Engaging the Nations’,” in Contemporary Mission Theology: Engaging the Nations. Essays in Honor of Charles E. Van Engen, edited by Robert L. Gallagher – Paul Hertig (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis 2017), 57–67; Stephen B. Bevans, “Beyond the New Evangelization: Toward a Missionary Ecclesiology for the Twenty-First Century,” in A Church with Open Doors. Catholic Ecclesiology for the Third Millennium, edited by Richard R. Gaillardetz and Edward P. Hahnenberg (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2015), 3–22. In this context, see the thoughtful comparison between Bevans and Johannes Hoekendijk offered by D. T. Irvin, “For the Sake of the World: Stephen B. Bevans and Johannes C. Hoekendijk in Dialogue,” International Bulletin of Mission Research 44, no. 1 (2020): 20–32.
- 14.
On mercy and tenderness as key theological terms of Pope Francis’ understanding of God, mission and church, see Kurt Appel and Jakob Helmut Deibl, eds., Misericordia e Tenerezza. Il Programma Teologico di Papa Francesco (Cinisello Balsamo: Edizioni San Paolo, 2019).
- 15.
Pope Francis, Gaudete et Exsultate (March 19, 2018), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20180319_gaudete-et-exsultate.html (accessed February 11, 2020).
- 16.
Cardinal Blase Cupich, “Promoting Human Dignity Is Our Baptismal Call,” National Catholic Reporter, January 25, 2020, https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/cardinal-cupich-promoting-human-dignity-our-baptismal-call
- 17.
O. F. Tveit, “Walking Together, Serving Justice and Peace,” Ecumenical Review 70, 1 (2018): 3–15.
- 18.
The four verbs have been mentioned and explained for the first time by Pope Francis in his address during the Forum “Migration and Peace” (February 21, 2017), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2017/february/documents/papa-francesco_20170221_forum-migrazioni-pace.html (accessed February 11, 2020). They have been reiterated by Pope Francis, Message World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2018 (January 14, 2018), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/migration/documents/papa-francesco_20170815_world-migrants-day-2018.html (accessed February 11, 2020).
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Campese, G. (2021). The “Refugee Crisis” as an Opportunity for Missionary and Pastoral Conversion. In: Chapman, M.D., Latinovic, V. (eds) Changing the Church. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53425-7_17
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