Our Sister, Mercedes Bayo, episcopal delegate for a Church of charity and Samaritan, in Salamanca, recently participated in the XLIV National Day of Pastoral Work with Migrants, organised by the Subcommission for Migration and Human Mobility. A meeting in which delegates and pastoral agents from 45 dioceses reflected and shared experiences and proposals on the reception, accompaniment and inclusion of migrants.
At the 44th National Conference of delegates and pastoral workers with migrants. More than 100 people from 45 Spanish dioceses came together. The theme that accompanied us, Migrants: sign of hope, was for me a continuation of what we experienced in the diocese of Salamanca in a Week of Hope full of depth, openness and challenges. I am grateful for the opportunity to enjoy a rich space for coexistence, reflection, prayer and exchange of experiences in the pastoral care of migrants.
We were able to dedicate space and quality time to reflect on the meaning and centrality that welcome and hospitality have in our Christian tradition. How important that Professor José Manuel Aparicio Malo reminded us that opening or closing oneself to hospitality means opening or closing oneself to blessing, to God's will! He reminded us, with texts from both the Old and New Testament and the Holy Fathers, that hospitality is linked to the image and likeness of God; it is a criterion for choosing elders and episcopes, that is, leaders, to verify our faith, and what a great responsibility we have, because it is linked to our baptismal commitment and is an evangelising criterion. It was good that he asked us the question: how many migrant friends do you have?
During the day, we were offered the opportunity to get to know the legal framework that our society is building in order to establish the criteria for welcoming the people who knock on our door. Several speakers helped us in this reflection: D. Francisco García Calabrés presented the new Foreigners' Regulation, which will come into force in May, pointing out that, although in some aspects it improves on the previous one, speeding up regularisation processes, in others it takes a step backwards, such as the fact that people who are refused asylum are not counted for the time they have already spent in the country so that they can start their regularisation process by means of the “arraigo”.
Alberto Ares SJ, presented the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, a pact that has not been drawn up with the emphasis on the reception and protection of migrants, but on the control of our borders. In the face of this, the Church can and must offer what is most valuable in community life: sharing goods and life, providing alternatives in the face of insecurity and the crisis of collective meaning. He invited us to pray with the text of the Emmaus pilgrims, so that our hearts may be warmed and we may recover hope.
The programme included a round table of experiences of the Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities of Spain (FEREDE), where projects for the reception, accompaniment and inclusion of migrants were shared. An open door to networking and ecumenical work. This is the recommendation of the pastoral exhortation Welcoming and Missionary Communities: ‘to participate in ecumenical dialogue, through training activities and getting to know other ecclesial communities’.
Within the meeting, it was important for me to be able to listen to and get to know the work and experiences of evangelisation in other dioceses. The group work of all the participants gave us the opportunity to evaluate three of the good practices to which the pastoral exhortation Welcoming and Missionary Communities invites us:
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Networking experience to grow in coordination and shared mission.
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Formation meetings on the reality of migrations
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Active participation of migrants
And it could not be otherwise that listening to the representatives of the two dioceses of the Canary Islands left our hearts touched by the situation of the reality of migration in the islands, where the number of people of foreign origin represents 22% of the population. They pointed out that, at present, the community looks after some 5,800 adolescents who have arrived by sea. Faced with this situation, the two dioceses of the Canary Islands are appealing to the other dioceses of the peninsula to take in young people under guardianship through the Corridors of Hospitality project, with the aim of giving a dignified welcome to these young people who, once out of the centres under guardianship, are in a situation of total destitution. It is also a gesture of solidarity to alleviate the burden that falls on them because they cannot be cared for due to lack of resources.
Proof that these corridors are bearing fruit is that, in the last few months, 15 young people have already been taken in in Jerez, 6 in Madrid and 2 in Zaragoza. There is hope that other dioceses will join this project as a sign of solidarity with the dioceses of the Canary Islands. Will the Diocese of Salamanca be one of them?
The delegates, delegates and pastoral agents with migrants from the 45 dioceses present at this day, in the face of the growing increase in the culture of rejection of migrants in our environment, we reaffirm our commitment to promote the culture of encounter, which, as Pope Francis says, ‘is the only one capable of building a more just and fraternal world, a better world’.
04/09/2025