Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People in collaboration with
F.A.B.C. Office for Human Development First Integrated Meeting
on the Pastoral Care of the Road/Street Road/Street for the Continents of Asia and Oceania Bangkok, 19th – 23rd October 2010
FINAL DOCUMENT
I. THE EVENT The First Integrated Meeting for the Pastoral Care of the Road/Street for the Continents of Asia and Oceania was held at the Baan Phu Waan Pastoral Training Centre at Samphran, (Bangkok-Thailand) from 19th to 23rd October 2010. The Meeting was promoted by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (PCPCMIP) and organized in collaboration with the Office for Human Development of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (OHD.FABC). There were 57 participants: bishops, priests, religious sisters, religious brothers, and lay sociopastoral agents, from 17 countries in Asia and Oceania: Australia, Bangladesh, China (Macau), China (Hong-Kong), India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand. They represented Episcopal Commissions for Justice and Peace, Episcopal Commissions on Socio-human Development, National and Diocesan Caritas and other socio-religious charity institutions in both Continents.
II. THEME The theme of the Meeting has been fittingly chosen, based on the well known Biblical passage of the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus: "Jesus came up and walked by their side˝ (Lk 24:15). The Pastoral Care of the Road/Street is indeed “a walk together”. In the light of the theme, oriented by the Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road/Street, published by PCPCMIP in 2007, 7 main speakers and 11 panellists contributed to enlighten the participants and broaden their knowledge on the pastoral care of the road/street. They covered areas such as pastoral solidarity towards truck/lorry drivers,
road security, prostitution and trafficking in human beings as new forms of slavery1. They also reviewed the complexity and pastoral challenges of liberation and integration of street women and street girls, rights and reception of street children/boys, dignity, rights and reception of the homeless and possible collaboration with the States and civil organizations. There were two contributions from Germany and Spain with special reference to lorry drivers and road security.
III. CONCLUSIONS We, the participants of the aforementioned continental Meeting in Bangkok: a. We thank God for so many traditional, religious, cultural, human and social values proper to Asia and Oceania; b. We appreciate numerous positive and encouraging development progress and projects in motion in the two continents, despite political and administrative setbacks; We feel enriched by the presentations issued by our sisters and brothers as main c. resource persons and panellists, as well as by workshops and personal sharing of experiences; We are enlightened by the teachings of the Second Vatican Council that “there is a growing awareness of the exalted dignity proper to the human person…. and his rights and d.
duties are universal and inviolable. Therefore, there must be made available to all men [and women] everything necessary for leading a life truly human, such as food, clothing, and shelter; the right to choose a state of life freely and to found a family, the right to education, to employment, to a good reputation, to respect, to appropriate information, to activity in accord with the upright norm of one's own conscience, to protection of privacy and rightful freedom, even in matters religious”2; e. We reflected upon the concerns expressed by the Fathers of the Synod of Bishops for Asia that “Asia is the earth’s largest continent and is home to nearly two-thirds of the world population” with “great religious and cultural realities as well as of socio-political contrasts”3. And that “the rapid changes [both positive and negative] taking place within Asian societies” such as “.…the phenomenon of urbanization and the emergence of huge urban conglomerations, often with large depressed areas where organized crimes, terrorism, prostitution, and the exploitation of the weaker sectors of society thrive”, and that tourism “though a legitimate industry with its own cultural and educational values… has in some cases a devastating influence upon the moral and physical landscape of many Asian countries, manifested in the degradation of young women and even children through prostitution and being equally
Cf. SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Apostolic Constitution Gaudium et spes, n. 27. IBID., n. 26. 3 POPE JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia, 2009, n. 6. 1 2
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concerned with the persistent reality of poverty and the exploitation of people, especially that of women”4; f. We know that the road and the street in Asia and Oceania which may facilitate daily life and human communications, may also be the situation of danger and exploitation of human beings; g. We know that poverty, easy money making agents/agencies, human trafficking, growing sex tourism and loose legal systems cause and facilitate women, girls and even men to live on prostitution; h. We know that poverty, domestic and sexual abuses, family disintegration, abandonment, separation or divorce of parents, human trafficking, exploitative labour, school drop-outs and illiteracy encourage children to live on road/street; i. We know that children are often victims of abuses and violence, perpetrated by men and women, at times even among members of the Church. We condemn such atrocities and at the same time express our simpathy to the victims; j. We know that poverty, urbanization, industrialization, migrations, family breakdown, mental illnesses, addictions, natural disasters and lack of State efforts are some of the causes of homelessness; k. We know that the Church is a tiny minority in Asia. Given the complexity and density of the increasingly challenging reality of the road/street in Asia and Oceania, and while appreciating all the socio-pastoral activities already in motion, carried out by Episcopal Conferences, Dioceses, religious congregations/institutions and Catholicinspired lay organizations, we realize that the Church is unable to respond adequately and appropriately to the needs of the categories of persons under our consideration, unless there is good will and collaboration on the part of the governments and civil organizations; l. We know that the “joys and hopes, the griefs and the anxieties” of our brothers and sisters, youngsters and children in Asia and Oceania, “who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ”5 in Asia and Oceania; m. We acknowledge that the Church’s mission is first and foremost one of evangelizing, educating, liberating through spiritual renewal and human promotion in the spirit of the Gospel values, since whatever is done to the least of these brothers and sisters is done unto Him (cf. Mt. 25:40);
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IBID., n. 7. SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Apostolic Constitution Gaudium et spes, n. 1.
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IV. RECOMMENDATIONS We declare our commitment to adhere to the following deliberations during the next period of our activities. 1. All Church institutions and the faithful should be duly informed of the pressing need for attention on the complex reality of men, women and children on the street, homelessness and road security in Asia and Oceania. They need to use all modern technologies and communications, without overlooking the power of the pulpit. 2. Theological, spiritual and ethical elements of the pastoral care of the road, especially with regard to road safety and driving, should be developed so that the Episcopal Commissions for Human Development can provide the pastoral agents with appropriate formation. Formation courses for pastoral agents of the pastoral care of the road should be included in the study programmes of Catholic universities. 3. The Episcopal Conferences should establish a special Commission on Human Mobility or, where this is not possible, empower the already existing Commissions (Justice and Peace, Social Development, Migrants and Refugees) to take on the task of on-going education and conscientization of the faithful. They need formation in the charity and commitment, required to make their contribution in the improvement of the lives of women and children on the streets, in finding adequate responses for the homeless and helping security on the road. 4. These same Commissions should give special focus on the education and sensitivity of men towards atrocities against women and children. 5. The pastoral agents engaged in the concern of women and children on the street and the homeless, should develop a mentality of networking and engage continental/ intercontinental processes of collaboration, information-sharing and coordinated efforts in view of bringing about systemic changes. This will contribute to make more effective the pastoral care for women and children on the street, the homeless and those on the road, at the individual/ diocesan/ regional/ national levels. 6. Institutes of consecrated life, Societies of apostolic life and lay Associations, in collaboration with non-governmental and other faith-based organizations, should coordinate efforts at national/ continental and intercontinental level. Programmes should be implemented in order to transform the market-oriented attitudes of Governments and business sectors into those of upholding human dignity and promotion of life. 7. The Episcopal Conferences and the related Hierarchical Structures of the Oriental Churches should make every effort at national, continental and intercontinental levels to influence Governments, State institutions, internal ministries, justice systems, and
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national security. The aim would be to impede crimes which degrade the human person and bring to justice individuals and groups who organize this activity in Asia and Oceania. 8. All Christian communities, beginning with parishes, should make every effort to safeguard the unity, dignity and centrality of the family that gives identity and prevents its disintegration caused by poverty, violence, trafficking and smuggling. 9. The Dioceses should promote the richness, creativity and power of community based initiatives, recognizing them as change-agents in the process of building up the Kingdom of God. 10. We appeal to the Governments to improve the condition of homeless citizens by making available to them decent housing at affordable costs, basic services, education and employment opportunities. 11. We encourage greater coordination between the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People and the Federation of the Asian Episcopal Conferences in establishing specific initiatives to address road safety, homelessness and women and children on the street (e.g. the celebration of the “Asian Day against Human Trafficking� on the 1st Sunday of October). 12. The F.A.B.C. Office for Human Development, in cooperation with the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, should promote and ensure the implementation of the above mentioned recommendations and encourage the organization of regional meetings for this purpose.
3rd November 2010
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