Messaggio della Consigliera _14 dicembre 2018 eng

1. GlobalCompactonMigrants
Rome, December 2018.
Dearest Sisters,
A very affectionate greeting with wishes for a fruitful preparation for
Christmas. We have recently celebrated the Solemnity of the Immaculate
Conception and the anniversary of the Salesian Oratory. Now, always in Mary’s company, we go
together with the young, the families, the migrants… as educating communities, to meet the Lord
who is coming. He comes as a little Baby who, in His littleness and humility reveals the grandeur
and tenderness of a God given as a gift of love! Holy continuation of Advent to everyone!
As I write to you, the Global Compact on Migrants and Refugees has not yet been signed.
Foreseen for December 10-11 is the Summit coordinated by the United Nations at Marrakech,
Morocco, where the majority of the world’s Countries will sign the Global Compact. Offered are 23
objectives for a safe, ordered, and regular migration. When a phenomena is global, the approaches
and the solutions must also be global!
The Church as well, through the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for the
Service of human integral development, participated in the entire process presenting a document of
20 concrete points as a proposal, fruit of what the Church is already living and doing for the people
who are forced to abandon their Country, culture, language, family…in search of better living
conditions, in search of improved dignity and humanity.
We pray that the Global Compact on migrations will help peoples and National
Governments to fight fear and the construction of walls and promote dialogue and the culture of
encounter.
Dearest Sisters, it would be interesting to know the positions of your Governments regarding
the Global Compact, and also to collaborate with the local Church in the accompaniment of this
very important process to make Countries take steps, even if small, toward migrants, especially the
most vulnerable. For a more human and efficacious response to the migratory phenomena, it is
necessary to “go out, meet, be close”
The Global Compact favors the co-responsibility of all Authorities and societies of the
Countries of departure, transition, and arrival. The aim is to furnish safety and protection for the
migrants and also for the receiving Countries, promoting legal migration journeys and thus
preventing human trafficking, death trips, family separations, and violence.
Thus, I think of the Family of Nazareth: Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. What must they have
experienced during their flight into Egypt? Some say that the flight of the Holy Family is the
architype of every refugee family.
With Matthew’s Gospel (2: 13-15), the Holy Family becomes the reference point of families
uprooted from their environments. How many there are in the world!
On August 1, 1952, the Apostolic Constitution ‘Exsul Familia’ was published. This is how
it starts: “The Holy Family of Nazareth that flees into Egypt is the architype of every refugee
family. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, exiled in Egypt to escape the fury of an evil king are, for all times

2. GlobalCompactonMigrants
and places, the example and protectors of every migrant, alien, and refugee of whatever kind who,
forced by fear of persecutions or by necessity, must leave their native Country, their beloved
parents and relatives, their closest friends, and find a strange country”.
Dearest Sisters,
If we reflect on the adhesion of the Nations to the Global Compact on migrants and refugees
and on the icon of the ‘Flight into Egypt’, we can affirm with heart and mind, that the coexistence
of the one human family is possible. With this affirmation, we too are ‘signing’ in our own small
way, the principle that every human being has the right to leave and arrive when their life and the
abundant life proclaimed by Jesus are endangered.
I invite you, dearest Sisters, to read and meditate on the passage of Matthew 2: 13-15 and to
support with prayer and also with affection and closeness, people you know who live the drama of
the ‘flight into Egypt’. Yes, perhaps alongside us there are people who have had to ‘flee’ from one
place to establish themselves in another to insure they have work, a home, health, safety, family
unity, the growth and education of their children.
In addition, I invite you to a deeper and more concrete reflection on the migratory
phenomena present in our realities, where we FMA live and where the charism of Don Bosco and
Mother Mazzarello is alive and the bearer of life. Let us look at the world and grow in awareness
that all our Nations are Countries of origin, transition, and destination.
Finally, with this message I communicate that from the month of January on, we will
highlight the figure of Blessed Maria Troncatti in the 50th
year of her birth into Heaven. In the
meantime, the project “For a common home in the diversity of peoples” will continue its journey,
becoming more and more concrete and fruitful in our communities, more original, and more visible
through our hands, our heart, our agile, sisterly, and welcoming steps.
A very sisterly embrace and in reciprocal prayer!
Affectionately,
Councilor for the Missions
‘FLIGHT INTO EGYPT’ MIGRANT FAMILY