During the opening ceremony of the preparatory (stocktaking) meeting of the Intergovernmental Conference to adopt a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration held in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on 4 December 2017, the Holy Father delivered a recorded video message in which he invites everyone, individually and collectively, “to welcome, protect, promote and integrate” migrants and refugees as part of a global common response. At the end of his message, he turned his attention to the Global Compacts on Migration and on Refugees and called on those working on the Global Compacts to be inspired by “compassion, foresight and courage.”

The video message was shown for the first time at the stocktaking meeting in Puerto Vallarta for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. It is, however, meant as a proposal for addressing the situation of migrants and refugees beyond the discussion at the United Nations.

The Holy See’s delegation to the preparatory meeting of the Intergovernmental Conference to adopt a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration consisted of (pictured left to right): Timothy Herrmann, attaché and negotiator of the Holy See’s Mission to the UN; Archbishop Bernardito Auza, head of delegation and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN; Fr. Michael Czerny, SJ, co-undersecretary of the Section for Refugees and Migrants in the new Vatican dicastery for Promoting of Integral Human Development; and Msgr. Kevin Randall from the Nunciature in Mexico and a priest from the Diocese of Norwich CT.