Vatican Honors All Migrants ‘Displaced Like Jesus’

The Vatican has urged greater attention to migrants in the new year, inviting the faithful to see them as people who have been “displaced like Jesus.”

“One year ends, a new one begins, let’s walk again the path made with our brothers and sisters #DisplacedlikeJesus,” declared the Vatican’s office for Migrants and Refugees in a tweet Sunday.

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In a video message embedded in the tweet, Pope Francis explains that he had chosen the theme “Forced like Jesus Christ to flee” for his message for the 2020 World Day of Migrants and Refugees to remind people of what Jesus experienced as a child “displaced and a refugee.”

The pope’s message for 2020 declared that the tragedy of internally displaced people is “one of the challenges of our contemporary world, especially because of “situations of conflict and humanitarian emergencies, aggravated by climate change.”

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During the flight into Egypt, “the child Jesus experienced with his parents the tragic fate of the displaced and refugees,” Francis said in his message, citing a 1952 text by Pope Pius XII, “which is marked by fear, uncertainty and unease.”

“Unfortunately, in our own times, millions of families can identify with this sad reality. Almost every day the television and papers carry news of refugees fleeing from hunger, war and other grave dangers, in search of security and a dignified life for themselves and for their families,” Francis said.

“In each of these people, forced to flee to safety, Jesus is present as he was at the time of Herod,” he continued. {snip}

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