THE PHENOMENON OF MIGRATION AND THE MAGISTERIUM OF THE CHURCH: NOTES FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL THOUGHT1
INTRODUCTION I. SOME BACKGROUND AND DEFINITIONS 1. Mobility and migration 2. Mobility implies uprooting 3. Migration in America 4. What moves a person to migrate? 5. Migration in the context of globalization II. WHY AND TO WHOM DOES MIGRATION CONCERN? 1. To the Church a. Background on the question b. Why is the Church concerned with migration? c. Pastoral care of migrants 2. To people of good will 3. To the State III. DOCTRINAL APPROACH 1. Biblical background a. In the Old Testament b. In the New Testament c. Christians as guests in the promised land 2. Eclesiological dimension 3. Some questions from the social doctrine of the Church a. The right to migrate b. The right to migrate is not absolute c. Solidarity and migration d. The universal destiny of wealth e. Families and migration f. The rejection of discrimination g. Migration and inter-religious dialogue h. The right to just coexistence i. Migration and human labor j. The problem of illegal immigration k. Crime and immigration IV. CONCLUSIONS
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Most of this work has been developed using as a reference the Instruction Erga migrantes caritas Christi, from the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Vatican City, 2004. I would like to acknowledge here Rev. Fr. Michael A. Blume, S.V.D., Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People. His paper entitled "Migration and the Social Doctrine of the Church", published in "People on the Move" nº 88-89 (April-December 2002) was a determining factor to undertake this project.
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