Vatican City, Jun 4, 2010 / 17:04 pm
The second-in-command of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrant and Itinerant Peoples, Archbishop Agostino Marchetto spoke with CNA on Wednesday about the Church's position on migration. He mentioned his "admiration" for the U.S. bishops in their efforts to support human rights and work against the criminalization of "irregular" migrants.
The archbishop explained first off that the council, which specializes in pastoral care for people on the move in any form, held its plenary meetings last week. Those meetings, he said, focused on the "co-responsibility" of the Church and states for the care of migrant and itinerant people.
During the meetings, he said, "admiration" was expressed for the U.S. bishops, "for their attitudes in relation with ... the presence in the States of a lot of what we call 'irregular' migrants - we would not say 'illegal' migrants, no other word is worse for us."
Their work, he continued, is a sign of "concretization, of realization" of the human rights of migrants.