‘Pastoral Intervention’ Needed to Address Migrant Issues, Says Filipino Bishop

A Filipino prelate underlined the need for “adequate forms of pastoral intervention” to address the worsening issues of migration around the world.

“[The Church] is at the forefront of caring for migrants [and their families] to make them feel they are welcomed [and] accompanied,” said Bishop Socrates Mesiona, Apostolic Vicar of Puerto Princesa in the Philippines.

He said that migration must not only be treated as a legal problem or a social burden, but also as a mission to rekindle the faith of those in need.

“When migrants suffer isolation and abandonment, the Church’s mission is to provide the conditions in which faith and hope can be reignited, through accompaniment that respects both the person and the community they come from,” he said.

Bishop Mesiona, who heads the Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), led the Holy Mass on the second day of the 8th Grand Luzon Assembly for the Migrants’ Ministry on June 3.

Delivering his homily to hundreds of diocesan migrant ministry directors and representatives, the bishop emphasized how the Church no longer recognizes migration as a minor pastoral issue.

“The experience of migration can be very challenging,” explained Bishop Mesiona. “To be uprooted can also cause some feeling of abandonment, and the experience of living in dramas of existential displacement, crisis of values, and even loss of faith and despair.”

 Furthermore, he also warned them about the danger of being indifferent and non-receptive to migrants, especially within their own parishes, dioceses, and communities.

The 8th Grand Luzon Assembly, held in Quezon City from June 2 to 4, presented potential frameworks to properly deal with the migration trends affecting overseas Filipino workers and their families, aligned with the Church’s social teaching and pastoral instruction.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the number of Filipinos who worked abroad in 2024 was estimated at 2.19 million, recording a 1.5% increase compared to 2023.

Meanwhile, Asia has hosted 86 international migrants, comprising of 61% of the global international migrant stock, according to the World Migration Report 2024.