Vatican City, Dec 1, 2008 / 11:21 am
The secretary for the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, announced last week his dicastery is working on a document that will address the issue of refugees and be issued in 2009.
The archbishop made the announcement during the Assembly of the Committee for Migrations of the German Bishops’ Conference, which took place in Cologne. During his remarks, he stressed that “the aid that is provided to refugees should include material and spiritual necessities,” and therefore the document to be released in 2009 will be of a “pastoral nature.”
“Refugees have always been present in the heart of the Church,” he stated, noting that each human being “is precious, as people are more important than things, and the value of each institution is measured according to how it treats life and the dignity of the human being.”
“Each human being has essential and inestimable value, a dignity that should in no way be threatened,” he said.