This course is particularly aimed at all those, religious or lay, who work in the field of migration and directly or indirectly assist individual migrants or ethnic or linguistic communities.
It aims to provide the basic elements for addressing the topic of migration and at the same time offers a biblical and theological framework for supporting pastoral ministry with migrants in the light of the teaching and practice of the Catholic Church.
In addition to the more traditional presentations and lectures, the course offers multimedia material and practical workshops in which participants can interact with each other and with the facilitators.
The programme consists of several topics and themes, including :
- Understanding human mobility in Africa and [specific region]
- Overview of migration in the country in question
- Human rights of migrants, undocumented migrants, refugees and statelessness.
- The legal scenario in the country in question: documentation cases of refugees and migrants (including pro bono lawyers and organisations like UNHCR, IOM...)
- Migration in the Bible
- An African theological perspective on human mobility
- Identifying access to social services for migrants and refugees (Workshop on local support for refugees, migrants and displaced persons, led by a local actor)
- The social dimension of pastoral care for people on the move: seeing, judging, acting
- Scalabrini, a living voice in the current times of migration (our charisma and spirituality towards people on the move)
- The Church's response to the challenges of migration (Social doctrine of the Catholic Church and a brief history of the pastoral care of migrants)
- The Global Compact and the 4 verbs of Pope Francis' Magisterium (20 action points)
- Planning the pastoral care of migrants in our local context (Final workshop)