“Towards an ever wider ‘we’” is the theme of the 107th Migrant and Refugee Sunday, celebrated on the 26th of September, 2021.
Pope Francis has released his message for Migrant and Refugee Sunday with an emphasis on creating a diverse and beautiful world which celebrates our differences while remaining as one.
“In our day, the Church is called to go out into the streets of every existential periphery in order to heal wounds and to seek out the straying, without prejudice or fear, without proselytising, but ready to widen her tent to embrace everyone. Among those dwelling in those existential peripheries, we find many migrants and refugees, displaced persons and victims of trafficking, to whom the Lord wants his love to be manifested and his salvation preached.
“The current influx of migrants can be seen as a new “frontier” for mission, a privileged opportunity to proclaim Jesus Christ and the Gospel message at home, and to bear concrete witness to the Christian faith in a spirit of charity and profound esteem for other religious communities. The encounter with migrants and refugees of other denominations and religions represents a fertile ground for the growth of open and enriching ecumenical and interreligious dialogue” (Address to the National Directors of Pastoral Care for Migrants, 22 September 2017).”
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR THE 107th WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES 2021
The Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office will make a parish kit available in early September.
Videos and resources have also been made available from the Dicastery of Promoting Integral Human Development – Migrant and Refugee Section, including an introduction to this year’s theme.
Prayer
Holy, beloved Father,
your Son Jesus taught us
that there is great rejoicing in heaven
whenever someone lost is found,
whenever someone excluded, rejected or discarded
is gathered into our “we”,
which thus becomes ever wider.
We ask you to grant the followers of Jesus,
and all people of good will,
the grace to do your will on earth.
Bless each act of welcome and outreach
that draws those in exile
into the “we” of community and of the Church,
so that our earth may truly become
what you yourself created it to be:
the common home of all our brothers and sisters. Amen.
Rome, Saint John Lateran, 3 May 2021
Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles