Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 6, 2004 / 22:00 pm
In commemoration of Migrant Day this week in Mexico, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, Archbishop of Mexico City, said the best way to help migrants is to ensure that they do not have to leave their countries of origin.
Addressing President Vicente Fox, the Missionaries of Charity—who are commemorating the anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa—and hundreds of faithful, the Cardinal said that “there can be no real peace without justice and without respect for human rights.”
“Creating concrete conditions of peace, with regards to immigrants and refugees, means to be seriously committed to defending above all the right not to emigrate, that is, to live in peace and dignity in one’s own country,” the Cardinal said.
In this sense, the pointed out that “thanks to an attentive local and national administration, to more equitable commerce and to international cooperation, each country should be able to assure for its own inhabitants not only freedom of expression and movement, but also the possibility of obtaining fundamental necessities, such as food, health care, work, housing, education, the lack of which leaves many people with no choice but to emigrate.”