Pope Francis' Letter to Migrants: A Message of Hope and Dignity

"I too am a child of migrants who left in search of a better future." Pope Francis sent a letter to a group of migrants located in Lajas Blancas, Panama, at one of the reception points that the Panamanian government has enabled to attempt better control of foreigners continuing their migratory journey towards Costa Rica and then Mexico to the United States. The Panamanian town has been hit in recent years by a massive migratory flow that does not stop. "Now I would like to be personally with them." Francis retraces the hardships of his family who migrated in the early twentieth century from Piedmont. "There were times when they were left with nothing, even hungry; with empty hands, but with a heart full of hope." Francesco often returns to the migration issue. An epochal phenomenon that concerns the entire planet. He has repeatedly addressed the drama of those fleeing from Africa, through the terrible desert routes, with the risk of ending up in Libyan camps. Those who are lucky and manage to reach the Egyptian, Tunisian, Libyan, or Moroccan coast get into debt and leave by sea directed to Europe, but the Mediterranean is constantly witnessing catastrophic shipwrecks to the point of becoming a large cemetery. What happens in the Mediterranean is the same phenomenon that affects Latin America with millions of people heading towards North America, Australia and New Zealand, Asia with the Asian routes to reach the more developed countries, not to mention the forced movements of millions of families fleeing from hundreds of conflicts, often of a regional nature. Pope Francis has always insisted on the need to work upstream of the migration phenomenon to contain it. "I thank my brother bishops and pastoral workers who represent me before you. They are the face of a mother Church that walks with her sons and daughters, in whom she discovers the face of Christ and, like Veronica, with affection, brings relief and hope in the way of the cross of migration. Thank you for engaging with our migrant brothers and sisters who represent the suffering flesh of Christ, when they are forced to leave their land, to face the risks and tribulations of a difficult road, without finding any other way out." In the letter, Francis asks the migrant brothers and sisters to "never forget your human dignity. Do not be afraid to look others in the eye because you are not discarded, but you are also part of the human family and the family of the children of God. And thank you for being there."