To Curb Hostilities, Vatican Cardinal Urges Southern Africa Pastoral Agents to Engage Migrants in Stakeholder Meetings

Manzini, 01 October, 2025 / 2:11 AM

Pastoral agents working among refugees and displaced persons should facilitate stakeholder meetings to curb hostilities, the Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD) has said.

In an interview with the Communication Officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) ahead of the  World Day of Migrants and Refugees that was marked on Sunday, September 28, Michael Cardinal Czerny said stakeholder meetings can go a long way in addressing challenges migrants and refugees face.   

“Don’t think of yourself as the problem-solver or as an isolated representative of the Church. Invite others to come and meet migrants for themselves,” Cardinal Czerny told Sheila Pires during the September 26 interview on the sidelines of the 14th Plenary Assembly and Golden Jubilee of the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa (IMBISA).

In his considered view, “No one who has met the refugees and migrants face-to-face remains hostile. The meeting itself is already the beginning of the solution.”

The Czechian-born member of the Society of Jesus (SJ/Jesuits) also reflected on the growing challenges migrants and refugees in southern Africa face, including access to education and health care, and xenophobia.

Amid such challenges, the Church’s response must always begin with an encounter that involves journeying with the marginalized groups, he told the SACBC Communication Officer on the sidelines of the September 24-29 event held in Eswatini’s only Catholic Diocese of Manzini.

The 79-year-old Vatican Prefect acknowledged the complexities involved in dealing with migrants and refugees’ challenges. He said, “There isn’t a single answer. What matters is that, in each place, the Church asks: how can we respond? Sometimes all we can do is be with people — and that is already something powerful, because they know they are not alone.”

Cardinal Czerny called for the application of Pope Francis’s four verbs, which guide the Church’s response to migrants and refugees: welcoming, protecting, promoting, and integrating them into society.

In the September 26 interview, the DPIHD Prefect also weighed in on the challenge of healthcare and insecurity in some of the IMBISA member countries. 

On health care, the Cardinal said that even where the Church no longer manages hospitals directly, her pastoral mission in attending to the sick and the suffering remains vital.

“Governments may run the institutions, but they cannot meet the spiritual needs of the sick. We must ask how we can be present to people in their time of fear, pain, and hope — to bring Christ to them in those places,” he said.

Cardinal Czerny said that the same spirit of care extends to environmental conservation, and in line with the Season of Creation 2025, encouraged Catholics to take small, communal steps toward ecological awareness.

“If you care for creation, invite someone else along — to plant trees, to visit a river, or to meet communities suffering from drought. Caring for our common home begins in relationship,” he said.

On insecurity, the Jesuit Cardinal reflected on the conflicts in Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique and going beyond IMBISA, highlighted South Sudan.

“When we hear about war, maybe the only thing we can do is pray,” he said, and added, “But do we really pray, or do we just complain about what we see on the news? Let’s turn our anguish into prayer.”

Cardinal Czerny called for the “disarmament of the heart” in fostering peace, saying, “Before we make long speeches about peace, we must face the war zones within ourselves. True peace begins inside each of us and in our relationships.”

In the September 26 interview with Ms. Pires, the Vatican Prefect also reflected on the Golden Jubilee of IMBISA that was organized under the theme, “A Synodal journey, nourished by compassion and blossoming in faith as pilgrims of hope.”

He commended IMBISA members’ decision to celebrate the milestone through a Synodal Assembly.

“Instead of looking back nostalgically at successes or failures, they are embracing the new way of being Church — walking together, listening together, discerning together. This is the most faithful and hopeful way to prepare for the next 50 years,” Cardinal Czerny told Ms. Pires on September 26.