Many migrant workers and refugees throughout the world are enduring "a new slavery," and the Church's pastoral care for them must be marked by a distinctive spirituality of compassion for strangers and the poor, said Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato, Philippines.

The secretary general of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC)< was presenting an "FABC Perspective" on the matter on Nov. 8, at the conclusion of a three-day consultation involving high-ranking Vatican representatives. The theme was: Towards a better pastoral care for migrants and refugees in Asia at the dawn of the third millennium.

The Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People convened the Nov. 6-8 meeting with support from the Thai bishops' Commission for Human Mobility. Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino and Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, respectively president and secretary of the pontifical council, joined about 50 Church workers dealing with migrants in Asia at the consultation. It was held at the Bangkok archdiocesan pastoral center in Sam Phran, about 30 kilometers west of Bangkok.

Archbishop Quevedo noted that throughout the world, about 40 million people live as refugees or in refugee-like situations, and in Asia about 50 million people are migrant workers. He termed migrant labor the "new slavery," fueled by market forces in an age of economic globalization, which turns persons into economic commodities, deprived of their dignity and rights.

Reflecting on the consultation's theme, the Filipino archbishop asserted that the Church's pastoral care for migrants and refugees must be based on God's loving compassion for strangers and the poor as expressed in the values of hospitality and welcome.

Archbishop Quevedo also said setting up "family ministry" for migrants and refugees, which aims at educating families on the situation of migrants and refugees, is an urgent task for the Church in Asia.

Another burning issue, according to the archbishop, is reuniting migrant families. This, he said, requires advocacy, dialogue, solidarity and cooperation at the local and international levels.

Speaking with UCA News at the meeting, Archbishop Marchetto agreed that ministering to migrants is a major issue for the Church now and will remain so in the future. "We are more and more a people on the move," he pointed out.

To meet this need, the Vatican official said Church workers—clergy, Religious, laypeople—need to be trained appropriately. This calls for a spiritual, theological, juridical and pastoral formation in seminaries and novitiates, he stressed.

For instance, he noted, those who have had to flee their homes need more than just emergency assistance or food and shelter. "They particularly need to be considered as fellow human beings or brothers and sisters in the faith," he said, adding that the root causes which force people to flee must also be addressed.

Archbishop Marchetto also said the Catholic Church has a duty to provide pastoral care not only to Catholic refugees but to refugees of all religions. He acknowledged, however, that pastoral care for people of other religions has to be different from that given to Catholics. Under special circumstances, he added, a pastoral approach toward Muslims is appropriate, for example, "if we help them conserve the transcendental dimension of their lives in a secular society."

In opening the consultation, Johan Ketelers of International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) said migration has become an economic reality in Asia, where many children even grow up with the intention to emigrate.

Ketelers predicted migration will continue because of the current global economic crisis, reduced development assistance, increased food prices and climate change.

Asia, he continued, hosts close to a quarter of the 200 million international migrants worldwide. Some countries in the region, he added, encourage their people to work overseas, while some receive large numbers of migrant workers.

Currently, migrants from Asia officially remit almost USD 114 billion annually to their countries, nearly 30 percent of all remittances worldwide, Ketelers revealed.

 At the consultation, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, apostolic nuncio to Thailand, read out a message from Pope Benedict XVI.