Catholic Bishop on Migrants, Refugees in Southern Africa: “Give them the option to stay”

Aliwal North, 06 September, 2023 / 11:20 AM

Members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) are spearheading preparations for the celebration of the 2023 World Day of Migrants and Refugees, with the aim of providing those who have fled from their homes an option to stay in their host countries.

The theme of the September 24 celebration, “Free to choose whether to migrate or to stay”, encourages host countries “to see Christ in each person who is on the move or who chooses to stay,” according to Bishop Joseph Mary Kizito, the Liaison Bishop for the SACBC Migrants and Refugees Office.

Bishop Kizito adds, about migrants and refugees, “God is present in each one of them and manifests Himself in their faces.”

“Our humanity and our faith do not allow us to be indifferent to our neighbor. We are concerned about their well-being and implore the host countries to be inclusive in responding to their socioeconomic needs,” the Bishop of South Africa’s Aliwal North Diocese says in a communique shared with ACI Africa on Tuesday, September 5.

The Ugandan-born Catholic Bishop continues, “We particularly ask the human family to exercise the four verbs of Welcoming, Protecting, Promoting and Integrating them into our communities.” 

He appeals to host countries to pray for the migrants, refugees, forcibly displaced persons, asylum seekers and host communities. “We also pray and acknowledge all who are making a difference in the lives of migrants and displaced persons,” Bishop Kizito says.

The SACBC Migrants and Refugees Office has prepared a “Liturgy Kit”, which the Catholic Bishop says will be distributed in the various Dioceses of the three-nation Conference. 

In his service at the SACBC Migrants and Refugees Office that coordinates stakeholders in Botswana, Eswatini, and South Africa, Bishop Kizito continues to champion the issues of people who have been forced out of their respective countries by protracted violence, hunger, and a myriad of other challenges.

In a past interview with ACI Africa, Bishop Kizito said that the Church can no longer afford to remain silent on the needs of migrants and refugees.

In a March interview, he said that Pope Francis’ mantra: Welcome, Protect, Promote, and Integrate is also an invitation for the people of God to openly receive those seeking refuge in their countries, to make them feel at home, to empower them with opportunities and to integrate them into their communities.

“Fear is sometimes our biggest shortcoming. Pope Francis says that fear blocks us from seeing opportunities in other people,” Bishop Kizito said during the March 9 interview, and added, “We tend to fear those coming to us seeking refuge. White people fear blacks leaving Africa to search for better opportunities abroad. Blacks are sometimes seen as dangerous people in the places they go. The Holy Father says that we shouldn't fear these people to be charitable to them and help them.”

According to the Ugandan Bishop who has been at the helm of South Africa’s Aliwal North Diocese since his Episcopal Ordination in February 2020, no one is happy to leave his or her motherland. 

“These migrants are not on a tour. They have gone through so much, having to leave the places they know, the food they know, the environment and language they know, and the families they know,” Bishop Kizito said, when he spoke about the influence of Pope Francis in his life during the March 9 interview with ACI Africa.