All indicators available to the international community suggest that global migration will continue for the future. For her part, the Catholic Church asks religious leaders and communities to view it not as a threat, but with confidence as an opportunity to build peace.

Migrants and refugees do not arrive empty-handed. They bring their courage, skills, energy and aspirations, as well as the treasures of their own cultures; and in this way, they enrich the lives of the nations that receive them.

Countless individuals, families and communities around the world open their doors and hearts to migrants and refugees, even where resources are scarce. But it is not enough to open our hearts to the suffering of others. In a spirit of compassion, it is a duty of religious leaders and communities to welcome, protect, promote and integrate all those fleeing from war and hunger, or forced by discrimination, persecution, poverty and environmental degradation to leave their homelands.

Religious communities shall also urge those responsible for the public good to pursue policies of welcome, “within the limits allowed by a correct understanding of the common good […] to permit [migrants] to become part of a new society” (Pope John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris, 106) – bearing in mind, that is, the needs of all members of the human family and the welfare of each.