It is in the basement of Notre-Dame des Hongrois Church that the Diocese of Montreal suggested holding for a few hours a dynamic meeting on migrants and refugees. The goal was to understand the realities they face in Montreal, and elsewhere in Quebec and in the world. The event was in its sixth year.<\/p>\n\n
Far from being static, this gathering helped to raise awareness through videos, music, reflection forums, discussions on the Pope\u2019s letter and on concrete actions to take, and through a questionnaire to test one\u2019s knowledge on migration in Quebec! Enough to enlighten and deconstruct myths over these realities.<\/p>\n\n
Gathered at the tables were people of great cultural richness and experience who nourished the exchanges and thoughts. For Alessandra Santopadre, who welcomes refugees and asylum seekers for the Diocese of Montreal, this type of event is essential: \u201cIt\u2019s not easy, nowadays, to talk about migration because we always fear otherness, what is different. So [\u2026] there is a necessity to keep raising awareness on these issues, because we need to start living together.\u201d Alessandra is part of the team in charge at the Diocese of Montreal of the project Le Pont, a shelter for migrants and refugees.<\/p>\n\n
Invaluable Testimonies<\/strong> It\u2019s not just about migrants, it\u2019s about\u2026<\/strong> A Wealthy Indignation<\/strong> It is in the basement of Notre-Dame des Hongrois Church that the Diocese of Montreal suggested holding for a few…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nouvelle"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diocesemontreal.wp.vortexdev.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRegina, an asylum seeker from the Congo, has been living in Montreal for the past two years. She can now express herself without fear, as opposed to the first 18 months.\u201d She was afraid she would end up in jail, lose all her friends, community, family and work. In short, a whole lifetime built over more than 50 years.\u201d Her fear of individualism and cultural contrasts led her to isolation until she finally dared to seek help: \u201cWith the help and support of the supervisory staff from Le Pont, I was able to overcome my fear.\u201d Invaluable at this occasion was Regina\u2019s testimony, as well as those from Argentinian economic migrant Claudia and Maria, originally from Poland, who volunteers with immigrant families at Sainte-Monica\u2019s parish.<\/p>\n\n
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\nIt is about our fears, about charity, humanity, people\u2019s exclusion, putting the last first. It is also about the whole person \u2013 everybody \u2013 and finally about building the city of God and of human beings. These are the words of Pope Francis on this World Day of Migrants and Refugees. \u201cIt\u2019s all tied up,\u201d said Bishop Alain Faubert citing Laudato Si\u2019. \u201cWhat\u2019s at stake, meaning [\u2026] the gains and losses encountered by our actions [\u2026] is our common humanity [\u2026]. I believe that what can be gained or lost has already been won over in God\u2019s heart, because this is God\u2019s project.\u201d He also expressed his joy of being in an era in which the Church and humanity live \u201cthe Pentecost, the miracle of meeting people and of reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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\n\u201cI feel in my heart the need to grow a wealthy indignation,\u201d Bishop Faubert said. As Alessandra Santopadre also said, the world is craving for people who \u201cdo not only seek bad news and [\u2026] let themselves be stopped by their own fear of otherness, but try to go one step further [\u2026] taking tangible actions.\u201d
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\nFor more information on Le Pont, please visit:
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lepontmontreal\/<\/a>
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\nHere is an explanatory video<\/a> of that day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"