Scalabrinian Sisters Urge the World to Respond to Immigration Crisis

The Scalabrinian Sisters have cautioned the world against turning all its attention to the Covid-19 pandemic, saying this is not the only emergency facing us.

Sister Neusa de Fatima Mariano, Superior General of the Missionary Sisters of San Carlo Borromeo, Scalabrinians, told the Church’s Agenzia Fides that the world needs to respond to violence, social and economic crisis too. She was responding to the Pope’s remarks during last Sunday’s Regina Coeli, where the Holy Father described the deaths of immigrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea as ‘a moment of shame'.

“We ought to be ashamed,” said the Pope, referring to the 130 shipwreck victims. The Holy Father said he was close to the victims, who, “for two whole days begged in vain for help. Help that never came.”

“They are people,” said the Pope, "Human lives."

Reiterating the Holy Father's call to nations to treat all human beings equally, Sr. Mariano said, “We cannot look the other way thinking that the only emergency today is the Covid-19 pandemic,”

“Violence, social and economic crises continue to occur daily in every corner of the planet.

 “To witness, almost indifferently, another shipwreck in the Mediterranean, in a world that should be more supportive because it is engaged in the same battle against the pandemic, means having lost to globalization, the values of the identity of Europe.

“On this continent, many have always found space to realize their potential as persons.”

“We join the heartfelt voice of the Pope: Strengthen humanitarian corridors, strengthen international cooperation networks, and promote the strengthening of agreements with those who, by vocation and charisma, openly and freely support migration policies. We also address a thought for Nadia De Munari, the lay missionary brutally murdered with a machete in Peru. We offer our prayers for this climate of hatred that adds to the tragedies of the Mediterranean to stop. Let’s not let this appeal (of Pope Francis) sink along with the last 130 deaths,” the Superior General emphasized.

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