Potential migrants could be asked questions such as: “Where are you going? What are the benefits? What are the risks? What about your family? Your future?” the Ugandan-born Bishop who has been at the helm of Aliwal Diocese since his Episcopal Ordination in February 2020 said.
He further said that migration awareness campaigns should also include testimonies of “people who have returned back to their home countries”.
“People who have returned to their native countries should also be engaged to tell their story, their true story. They should be given platforms to talk about what they went through, what challenges they experienced,” said Bishop Kizito.
In the August 1 interview, Bishop Kizito said that migration is a human right, that it has a biblical basis, and that it is a normal social phenomenon that is linked to the history of humankind.
Asked about what he would be reporting back to the August 1-5 SACBC second Plenary Asembly in Mariannhill Diocese, Bishop Kizito said he will reiterate the call for the establishment of migrants and refugees’ offices at Parish level.
“Every Parish council should have somebody who's in charge of this ministry, just like we have people in charge of the different ministries such as proclaimers, catechism, Eucharist … every Parish ought to have trained people heading the migrants and refugees’ office”, he emphasized.
In the interview that followed the 19th Plenary Assembly of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) held in Ghana under the theme, “Ownership of SECAM: Security and Migration in Africa and its Islands”, Bishop Kizito said it is unfortunate that “most countries in Africa don’t have such awareness campaigns to prevent people from moving from their home countries.”
In their communiqué at the end of their Plenary Assembly in Accra, Catholic Bishops who came from the eight regional associations of SECAM called upon Christian communities “to develop an active pastoral care for migration, summarized in four actions: welcome, protect, promote and integrate.”
The pastoral care for migrants is to be developed “in a manner that is administratively acceptable and with full knowledge of the challenges that await them,” Catholic Bishops in Africa and Madagascar said.
Sheila Pires is a veteran radio and television Mozambican journalist based in South Africa. She studied communications at the University of South Africa. She is passionate about writing on the works of the Church through Catholic journalism.
