Pope Francis says "Do not forget the Old Testament: the widow, the orphan and the stranger. They are God’s privileged." FULL TEXT

 On Monday, October 28, Pope Francis met with the Missionaries of Saint Charles Borromeo, commonly known as Scalabrinians, on the occasion of their 16th  General Chapter. The Congregation has chosen the 2025 Jubilee theme "Pilgrims of Hope"  as its central theme in 2024.
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE XVI GENERAL CHAPTER
OF THE MISSIONARIES OF SAINT CHARLES (SCALABRINIANS)
Consistory Hall on Monday, 28 October 2024
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Dear brothers, welcome!
I greet the Superior General and all of you. I am very happy to meet you on the occasion of your XVI General Chapter. You are celebrating it on the eve of the Holy Year and it is beautiful that, in planning the future missionary and charitable pastoral care for migrants, you have chosen to be inspired by the Jubilee theme: “Pilgrims of Hope”. We can then reflect together on this virtue, referring to three aspects of your service: migrants, pastoral ministry and charity.
First: migrants. They are teachers of hope. I am the son of migrants, and at home we have always experienced that sense of going there to make America, to progress, to go further. They leave hoping to “find their daily bread elsewhere” – as Saint John Baptist Scalabrini said –, and they do not give up, even when everything seems to “row against”, even when they encounter closures and rejections. Their tenacity, often supported by love for the families left behind in their homeland, teaches us a lot, especially to you who, “migrants among migrants” – as your founder wanted you – share their journey. Thus, through the dynamics of encounter, dialogue, and welcoming Christ present in the stranger, you grow together with them, in solidarity with one another, abandoned “in God and in God alone”. Do not forget the Old Testament: the widow, the orphan and the stranger. They are God’s privileged. The search for a future that animates the migrant, moreover, expresses a need for salvation that unites everyone, beyond race and conditions. Indeed, “itinerancy,” properly understood and lived, can become, even in pain, a precious school of faith and humanity for both those who assist and those who are assisted (see Message for the 2019 World Day of Migrants and Refugees, 27 May 2019). Let us not forget that the history of salvation itself is a history of migrants, of peoples on the move.
And this brings us to the second point: the need for a pastoral care of hope. If on the one hand, migration, with appropriate support, can become a moment of growth for all, on the other, if lived in solitude and abandonment, it can degenerate into dramas of existential uprooting, of crises of values ​​and perspectives, to the point of leading to the loss of faith and desperation. The injustices and violence through which so many of our brothers and sisters pass, torn from their homes, are often so inhumane that they can drag even the strongest into the darkness of despair or gloomy resignation. Let us not forget that migrants must be welcomed, accompanied, promoted and integrated. If we want them not to lack the strength and resilience needed to continue the journeys they have undertaken, we need someone who will bend over their wounds, taking care of their extreme physical vulnerability, and also their spiritual and psychological vulnerability. We need solid pastoral interventions of proximity, on a material, religious and human level, to support their hope, and with it the interior paths that lead to God, a faithful traveling companion, always present beside those who suffer (see Benedict XVI, Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2013, 12 October 2012). And today many countries need migrants. Italy does not have children, it does not have children. The average age is 46. Italy needs migrants and must welcome them, accompany them, promote them and integrate them. We must tell this truth.
And this brings us to the third point: charity. On the eve of the Jubilee of 1900, Saint John Baptist Scalabrini said: “The world groans under the weight of great misfortunes.” These are heavy words, but unfortunately they still sound very current. Even today, in fact, those who leave often do so because of tragic and unjust disparities in opportunities, democracy, the future, or devastating war scenarios that afflict the planet. Added to this is the closure and hostility of rich countries, which see those who knock on their door as a threat to their well-being. We see this here too: there is the scandal that for the apple harvest, in the North, they bring migrants from Central Europe, but then send them away. They use them to pick apples, and then they leave. This today. Thus, in the dramatic confrontation between the interests of those who protect their prosperity and the struggle of those who try to survive, fleeing from hunger and persecution, many human lives are lost, under the indifferent eyes of those who simply watch the spectacle, or worse, speculate on the skin of those who suffer. In the Bible, one of the laws of the Jubilee was the restitution of the land to those who had lost it (see Lev 25:10-28). Today, this act of justice can materialize, in another context, in a charity that puts the person, his rights, his dignity back at the center (see St. John Paul II, Address to the participants in the IV World Congress promoted by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, 9 October 1998, 2), overcoming exclusionary stereotypes, to recognize in the other, whoever he is and wherever he comes from, a gift of God, unique, sacred, inviolable, precious for the good of all.
Dear brothers, the Scalabrinian charism is alive in the Church: many young people from various countries of the world bear witness to this, and they continue to join you. Be grateful to the Lord for the vocation you have received. Indeed, if you want the Chapter to become an opportunity to deepen and renew your life and mission, make it first of all a time of humble and joyful thanksgiving, before the Eucharist, before Jesus crucified and before Mary, Mother of migrants, as Saint John Baptist Scalabrini taught you. It is only from there that we begin to walk together, with hope, in charity (see Eph 5:2).
And thinking of you, I wanted to make a Cardinal [Fr. Fabio Baggio]. I would have liked to do it before, but he did not want to. Now, out of obedience, I have done it. And with him there will be two Cardinals here in Rome, Scalabrinians. Take it as a gesture of esteem, of great esteem. I already know you from the other diocese and I know how you work, a lot!
Thank you for the immense work you do. I bless you and pray for you, and I recommend you, please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.