Richard Steenvoorde
The pastoral challenge
Northern European context fall of the Berlin Wall and the accession of Eastern European countries to the EU have now resulted in a second wave of migrant workers from the East to the West.
Migration is not something ‘out there’ but something affecting the whole of the community
Today, we can no longer deny that migration is a core experience of the European social reality.2 The demographic changes occurring in the context of migration have religious consequences. The most visible aspect has been the upsurge of mosques and Muslim community centres. However, many migrants are Christian, and their arrival is changing the Christian churches as well. Some migrant communities start their own churches, others try to find a home in existing, but dwindling and ageing, Western communities. Lately, these communities have grown to realise that migration is structurally affecting their current position and future. Furthermore, they are slowly appreciating how migration is not something ‘out there’ but something affecting the whole of the community. A recent report on the plight of migrant workers in London described the situation of Catholic migrants as follows:
some important trends and shifts in the Christian world. In this context he also discussed the impact of migration on the church. According to Jenkins, the farreaching ethnic transformation of Europe was largely an accidental by-product of the Cold War. In wake of the Western industrial boom of the 1950s and 1960s it would have been logical to look to the East for cheap labourers, but the ‘Iron Curtain’ prevented these migration flows. Thus the first waves of migrant workers came from the South and from Africa. However, the
‘…a section of the Catholic community facing tough conditions, harsh working conditions and constant economic and personal uncertainty. In many cases this uncertainty is profoundly aggravated by the lack of papers or legal status which is often caused by social isolation and language difficulties rather than technical irregularity. This faithful, vulnerable and energetic group takes their Catholicism seriously and have high hopes of the Church and her Bishops when it comes to assistance in their days of need.’3
1. Introduction In 2002, Oxford professor Philip Jenkins published a book on the coming of global Christianity entitled The Next Christendom.1 In this book he tried to give an overview of
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New Diaconal Review Issue 1
Under those circumstances it is quite surprising that the 2004 Compendium of the Social Teaching of the Church hardly mentions migration as a key issue facing our society and church today, and when it does, it does so only specifically in the context of political refugees (505). Yet, barely a month after the publication of the compendium, the Pontical Council for the pastoral care of migrants and itinerant people issued a new instruction Erga migrantes caritas Christi (The love of Christ towards migrants) which, according to Cardinal Hamao ‘intends to be an ecclesiastical response to the new pastoral needs of migrants and lead them towards the transformation of their migration experience not only into an opportunity to grow in Christian life, but also an occasion of new evangelisation and mission’.
To lead them towards the transformation of their migration experience not only into an opportunity to grow in Christian life, but also an occasion of new evangelisation and mission Until recently, specific data on the effects of migration and the expectations of migrants of the church were not available. This all changed with the 2007 groundbreaking report The Ground of Justice by the Von Hügel Institute, St Edmunds College, Cambridge. But before we can discuss the pastoral needs of migrants, let us first look at some concrete experiences of migrants arriving in Northern Europe.
2. Hopes and fears Many of the pastoral needs of migrants derive from the experiences upon entering the country. A recent publication of the Independent Asylum Commission has brought some harsh experiences into public daylight (2008). The following quotes by people who have experienced the process help to paint a disturbing picture: ‘My appeal failed and I spent four months homeless and hungry. One day it became too much and I tried to kill myself at Leeds train station. I will never forget the kind lady who took my hand and stopped me – but I would prefer to die than to go back to Sudan’.4 ‘We spent five and a half months in detention. It was extremely stressful, for me as a mother, and my young children cried every day. Our children were locked up like prisoners. Which type of human could keep a child locked up all day?’5 But asylum seekers are not the only ones who have a rough start upon entering the country. The following two case studies are derived from The Ground of Justice reports: ‘A young couple wanted to move from Poland. They found details of an “agency” on the web which promised to arrange a job and a place to stay. They arrived at Luton airport, were met, and then driven to an office, where they were asked for their £ 300 registration fee. They paid, and had their passports copied. Having been driven to a nearby house they then had their bags unloaded. As they walked towards the door – while the driver said
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Ministry of Caritas
Deacons and those involved in diaconal ministry are expected to have a particular knowledge of the social doctrine of the Church, and migration is one of the key international issues addressed in this teaching – and yet migration is usually relegated to the sidelines of local church policies. But with recent reports on the pastoral needs of migrants in the UK and the public value of migrant churches’ involvement in social cohesion projects in the Netherlands, migration is back on the churches’ agenda. Dr. Richard Steenvoorde* is a consultant for the Dutch Katholiek Netwerk and a Research Associate at the Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund’s College, Cambridge; he describes how the Catholic Church tries to respond to the challenge of migration.
of migration in the