On the first day of Advent 2017 and directly following Pope Francis鈥� apostolic visits to Myanmar and Bangladesh, it will end participation in the United Nations process to develop a Global Compact on Migration.
Rev. Daniel G. Groody, C.S.C.
鈥淭he decision for the U.S. to leave the U.N. Migrant and Refugee compact not only leads us astray from our core American values, but also makes us less as a people,鈥� said associate professor of theology and global affairs. 鈥淭o close ourselves off from those who have certified claims of torture and persecution betrays an important value that has truly made us a great country and is the moral equivalent of deporting our hearts to a foreign and fearful land.鈥�
In his , Groody argues that as the human community seeks to respond to the worst refugee crisis since World War II, Pope Francis provided an ideal model in the very first apostolic visit of his papacy.
Referencing where the Holy Father described the stories of refugees drowning in the Mediterranean as 鈥渁 painful thorn in [his] heart,鈥� Groody said:
鈥淲hen Pope Francis celebrated Mass at Lampedusa, he used a chalice hewn from a capsized refugee boat. When he used it in the context of the liturgy, he called the world to move from a globalization of indifference to a globalization of solidarity. He wanted the world to realize that when we make any-body into a no-body, every-body loses.鈥�
In his work on the theology of migration, Groody examines the integral connection between the bodies of refugees and the body of Christ in the Eucharist. The Church鈥檚 mission in responding to the refugee crisis, according to Groody, is to move from 鈥渙therness鈥� to 鈥渙neness,鈥� which means not just helping each refugee discover their dignity as 鈥渟ome-body鈥� but also showing that they are connected to 鈥渆very-body.鈥�
Groody added: 鈥淎s Christians enter the Advent season, the world remembers the One who first 鈥榤igrated鈥� into the territory of broken human existence 鈥� and became a refugee when escaping the persecution of a brutal dictator聽鈥� in order to help all people migrate back to their eternal homeland.鈥�
颁辞苍迟补肠迟:听Amanda Skofstad, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-4313,听skofstad@nd.edu