Fourth meeting of the migrant pastoral coordination team

About twenty priests, sisters and lay people directly concerned with ministry to migrant workers and asylum seekers met for a fourth meeting, directed by the coordinator of the commission, Father David Neuhaus, Patriarchal Vicar for Hebrew speaking Catholics. Present were those working among the Filipino, Eritrean, African, Indian, Russian, Lebanese and Bedouin populations as well as in the prisons. Also present were the parish priests of Tiberias and Eilat.

Those present gave some news of the work in the various communities. In the prisons, permission is awaited to celebrate a Catholic wedding of a prisoner with his fiancée. In the Bedouin communities, the struggle continues for their rights. An NGO has been established to help Filipinos hospitalized in Israel deal with medical expenses. The Indian community has begun to meet in a chapel formerly used exclusively by Filipinos in Tel Aviv. The Indian chaplaincy has organized a number of mass events leading up to Christmas. The Eritreans continue to call out for attention with regard to the massive human rights abuses taking place in Sinai. These are a few of the news items shared at the meeting.

Father David then introduced the agenda of topics that included the following:

- the possibility of tending to the spiritual needs of those detained in prison camps set up for infiltrators in the south of the country,

- the need to present the reality of the migrants – foreign workers and asylum seekers – to the local parishes,

- the continuing search for catechists to teach the migrant children (in Hebrew),

- the publication of a third volume of the catechism in Hebrew for children on the Catholic feasts,

- the publicity in the local press given to the changing face of the Catholic Church due to the arrival of the migrants.

A main topic was the preparation for marriage within the various migrant communities. Those present took some time to examine the directives issued by the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land with regard to preparation before receiving the sacrament of marriage.

During the meeting, Bishop William Shomali, Auxiliary to His Beatitude Patriarch Fouad Twal, shared with those present the concern of the Patriarch for this pastoral effort among migrants and assured those present that the Patriarch and his Vicars are examining how to better organize the outreach of the Church.

The meeting ended with a meditative reading of the letter Pope Benedict XVI sent to prepare for the 98th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, set for January 15, 2012.

To read the pope's letter here