“The People of God formed in the parish community must be a place of welcome, friendship and genuine encounter with one another” – Columban Fr Dan Harding (2ndfrom right) welcomes and accompanies people who find themselves displaced from their homelands (PC: Columban Missionaries)
September, a busy month
September is a beautiful month in Santiago, Chile. After a cold, wet winter, springtime has now arrived. Trees, shrubs and flowers are all abundantly blooming. The nearby Andes mountain remain snow covered and this year, the ski season has been extended into late October.
There is a sense of joy and happiness in the air, especially amongst the elderly for having survived the hard winter months. Evening daylight is much longer due to daylight saving time, which begins in September.
September is the month to celebrate Chile´s independence. Even though September 18th is the official date, it is nevertheless celebrated all through September with music, dance, national costumes and culinary delights. Churches are decorated with the Chilean flag and national colours, and Sunday Masses are followed by dancing and the eating of traditional empanadas. People are in the mood to celebrate and enjoy themselves.
In the Church, September, is also the Month of the Bible. This means that during September at all Sunday Masses and at other catechetical classes, a special emphasis has to be placed upon the Bible. Parishioners are encouraged to bring Holy Scripture into their everyday spiritual life.
Worldwide, September is also the Season of Creation, where we celebrate the gift of God´s Holy Creation and the need to care for Creation. This Season begins on September 1st and lasts until October 04th, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi. During Sunday Masses, we make an effort to focus on Creation and concrete actions we can take to protect Creation and all its threatened Biodiversity.
And also, September is the Month of Migrants and Refugees, particularly in preparation for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, celebrated on September 27th, this year, the last Sunday of September.
All of these different celebrations - Chile´s National Independence Celebrations, Bible Month, the Season of Creation and Migrant Month, can make parish life very busy during September.
Migration in Chile
In the last 10 years, Chile has received over 1,600,000 migrants, mainly coming from other Latin American countries, principally Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Peru.
In an overall national population of 20,000,000, this means that migrants now make up at least 8% of the total population.
With Chile´s increase in the life expectancy rate and with a fertility rate well below replacement level, some form of migration is seen as an economic necessity. The first wave of Venezuelan migrants were professional people who have greatly contributed to the development of their new country.
At the same time, most of the men and women collecting one´s rubbish and doing other hard labouring tasks in the sun, are now migrants, work that many Chilean no longer want to do.
A Recent Experience
On the first Sunday of September, I was celebrating Sunday Mass in a Columban parish. The parish liturgy team had prepared the theme of prayer for Migrants and Refugees. The Penitential Rite asked for forgiveness for the lack of welcome for migrants and the Prayers of the Faithful prayed specifically about integrating and supporting migrants and refugees.
Well, this migrant theme seems to have “triggered” one regular parishioner, who, just before the final blessing, grabbed the choir´s microphone and proceeded to give an angry outburst against migrants coming to Chile. There were several Venezuelan families in the congregation.
Basically, this lady blamed all the local social problems on migrants - the buses are too crowded due to migrants, crime and drug use has increased due to migrants, schools and medical centres are overcrowded due to migrants, impossible to rent a flat due to migrants etc. She said that if migrants come to Chile, they have to respect Chilean customs and not impose their own.
Now, of course, all of these social problems are very real and certainly need government and community attention. However, it is too easy to scape goat the migrant community for all of these social problems. In fact, migrants only make up around 5% of the population of this particular parish.
Soon, some people in the congregation started to disagree with this lady. So, I invited everyone to pray for migrants and for a heart to welcome them and also for a response to all the social problems that exist in our area, that dearly need attention. And then gave the final blessing and send off. I tried to speak with this lady afterwards, but she had left very quickly.
Conclusion
Sadly, some people from socio-economically poor areas, can feel that migrants are arriving in their neighbourhoods and are taking away scarce resources from the local people. They can feel that they are being deprived because migrants are taking up the few government resources available to them.
Also, psychologically, some people find it difficult to relate to people who are different from themselves. Meeting a person who looks different, who speaks different, who dressed different, who lives differently, can make them feel threatened, insecure, angry and overwhelmed.
In all our parishes, let us work towards a “culture of encounter” where people can meet migrants and other newcomers as fellow human beings first and foremost. The People of God formed in the parish community must be a place of welcome, friendship and genuine encounter with one another.
Columban Fr Dan Harding lives and works in Chile.
