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Skriven 2004-12-13 10:56:40 av Marc Lewis (1:396/45)
Ärende: Vatican Information Service (Press Release)
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              The following press release is Copyrighted by the
                        Vatican Information Service.
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                               VIS-Press releases

LEARNING TO RESPECT CULTURAL DIVERSITY

VATICAN CITY, DEC 9, 2004 (VIS) - This morning in the Holy See Press Office,
Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao, president of the Pontifical Council for the
Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, presented the Holy Father's
Message for the World Day of the Migrant and Refugee in 2005. Its theme this
year is "Intercultural Integration."

Cardinal Hamao indicated that "when we speak about intercultural issues we tend
to concentrate on the topic of different cultures and we forget about the
condition of migrants who suffer social inequality." He underscored the need
"to eliminate obstacles to social equality for migrants, while valuing the
differences of people coming from different cultural contexts."

"Cultural diversity," he continued, "is above all an exchange among people of
different cultural backgrounds and with legitimate, different points of view on
society. ... It is a movement of reciprocity, a path taken with others towards
others."

Referring to intercultural dialogue, the president of the dicastery said that
its purpose "is not only to educate people about culture and getting to know
other people, but especially to educate people about how others have learned
how to do things, methods that they have adopted to understand the world, God,
life, love and suffering."

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the pontifical council, commented
on the instruction "Erga migrantes caritas Christi" (The love of Christ toward
migrants), published on May 14 of this year which referred to multiculturalism.

The document, he recalled, emphasizes that we find ourselves before "cultural
and religious pluralism which has never been experienced before in such a
conscious way." In addition, he said "we Christians are called to bear witness
to the Gospel of charity and peace with respect and attention for the
traditions and cultures of immigrants," as the text says.

Speaking about migration, ethnic and cultural pluralism and the unity of the
Church, Archbishop Marchetto, citing the instruction, indicated that "migration
brings to each local Church the opportunity to verify its catholicity which
consists not only in accepting different ethnicities but also in making a
community of these ethnicities. Ethnic and cultural pluralism in the Church is
not a situation that should be tolerated as a temporary one but rather it
should be seen as a structural dimension."

"One of the most difficult challenges in the third millennium," he concluded,
"is to learn how to live united in diversity and multiplicity of cultures,
ethnicities and religions. Respect and recognition of the different cultural
identities must not be an obstacle but a basic condition to build up humanity,
united in diversity."

Father Michael Blume, S.V.D., council under-secretary, spoke on the general
vision of integration, and started by citing statistics on the 175 million
people in the world who, as migrants, find themselves outside their native
land. He noted that an estimated 56 million are in Europe, 50 million in Asia,
41 million in North America, 16 million in Africa and 6 million in both Latin
American countries and the Caribbean and in Oceania.

He pointed out that the United States, as a country, has the highest number of
migrants with 35 million people coming from an estimated 40 countries. Migrants
in Germany come from 18 nations and Japan hosts people from at least 10
countries. Father Blume said that "these statistics tell us that today
societies are comprised of people from various nations, therefore, from diverse
cultures, traditions, languages, customs, religions, values, etc. ... Host
countries cannot ignore the fact that they no longer have homogenous
populations."

The under-secretary explained that "integration" is a complex phenomenon that
involves both the host country and the arriving guests. Migrants must integrate
themselves into the host culture by learning the language and customs and by
adapting to social life, yet they must not lose sight of their own specific and
valuable cultural legacy. If migrants "do not succeed in slowly opening
themselves to the vaster reality of the society they now live in, they run the
danger of forming a ghetto with subsequent marginalization."

He closed his remarks by noting how Christian communities can help in welcoming
migrants and assisting in the true process of integration which "implies mutual
esteem and sympathy, reciprocal appreciation .... in a climate of 'authentic
understanding and good will'."
OP/PAPAL MESSAGE:MIGRANTS/HAMAOVIS 041209 (710)

SUMMARY

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