After the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters, today is the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. This
morning I celebrated Mass with a large group of migrants and refugees residing in
the Diocese of Rome. In my Message for this Day I emphasized that migrations today
are a sign of the times. “Every stranger who knocks at our door is an opportunity for
an encounter with Jesus Christ, who identifies with the welcomed and rejected
strangers of every age (Matthew 25:35-43)”…. In this regard, I wish to reaffirm that
“our shared response may be articulated by four verbs” which are founded on the
principles of the Doctrine of the Church: “to welcome, to protect, to promote and to
integrate”. From now on, for pastoral reasons, the World Day of Migrants and
Refugees will be celebrated on the second Sunday of September. The next, namely,
the 105th, will be on Sunday, 8 September 2019.
[…]
