Immigration Demands New Answers, Says Caritas Director

RIMINI, Italy, JUNE 18, 2002 (Zenit.org).- The phenomenon of immigration calls for new answers from Europe, says a Caritas-Italy official.

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This reality «should not serve to create new walls and occasions of conflict and confrontation, but to accept the change and together take an important historical-cultural step,» said Giancarlo Perego, national director of Caritas-Italy. The Caritas group is holding its 28th congress here.

«On one side — and this is the predominant position — there is no desire to look at the problem of mobility as such; rather, attention is given only to the aspects of conflict and confrontation,» Perego said.

«On the other side — and this is the more correct attitude — there is an attempt to interpret the phenomenon in a European key, trying to address the changes with a positive attitude,» he said.

Perego emphasized that immigration «challenges Christian communities to know how to find new answers, in collaboration with institutions.»

Caritas´ task is to «help individuals who are illegal in our territory to address their immediate and existential needs, while always trying to help them … to emerge from illegality,» he added.

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