The following is an excerpt from an interview with Archbishop of Assisi, Msgr. Sorrentino, who spoke to us during our visit.
We asked him what it means for him and for the community to host a young, Eritrean, Coptic-Orthodox couple at the bishop's house,
near the Church of the Spoliation.
Even two years later, his words remain relevant and not at all obvious.
"St. Francis gave up his clothes to welcome others. But what does that mean, concretely?
Talking about Francis is easy, but carrying out Francis' message today is a different story.
I often find myself talking to the pilgrims at the sanctuary and telling them about the family of migrants living here among us in the diocese.
This has a very very strong effect.
For me, having this family and seeing it as my own, is a huge spiritual and human richness,
in a way also this couple who experiences the religious dimension in a special way.
The point is that we help them with respect to their own beliefs, even facilitating their sense of belonging to their community.
Passing through the Museum of Memory, we explain that there was a significant chapter of welcoming persecuted Jews.
Now that we're in another storm, we act as if this doesn't affect us
T
We too must deal with this involution of civilization that saddens us greatly and doesn't really make sense.
It's a loss of not only evangelical, but national and civil memory. We have to do everything to stop it.
Of course, there is the problem of how to welcome in the future.
This is a problem for us and for them.
It's a problem I perceive even more clearly during my pastoral visits, when I'm forced to interpret reality as it presents itself, as in statistics.
We are a dying society.
By now, there is such a wide gap between the number of dead and the number of baptized children,
the latter number being implemented often by integration.
If these numbers are projected in 10 or 20 years, if the trend is not reversed, if there is no openness, a welcoming,
even a renewed impetus of life, we become candidates for extinction.
These realities help us, because they make us reflect. They make us open our hearts.
They set in motion a movement of recovering fundamental and universal ideals and values, because they aren't simply Catholic values.
Without these values, society becomes a candidate for extinction.
It's necessary to say this clearly, because although it is seen, it isn't discussed.
Thus, it never becomes a problem on which to reflect and work on.
With eyes and hearts closed, we can't get very far.
We need to say firmly that if there is a reality of immigration that today constrains us to face problems,
then it can bring only good.
Then there is the issue of how to organize.
That's why Humanitarian Corridors, from this perspective, is a beautiful example of how adequate welcome can be given.
Of course there is then the problem of how to open paths in the future.
The more a society recovers values like solidarity, the more it can provide resources and opportunities, even for Italians.
Welcome, and thanks to them! Because they force us to reflect on ourselves."
