Thank God for contribution of migrants

BY JOHN MCLAURIN

HOSPITALITY and being welcoming people was the key theme at this year’s migrant Mass held at St Christopher’s Cathedral.

 “The readings today encourage a culture of hospitality and welcome to arise from our love of God,” Archbishop Christopher Prowse said.

“In loving God we are to love each other.

“In God’s love for us and in His hospitality and welcome for us, there is a moral demand to show likewise hospitality and welcome to others, especially the battlers.

“From this culture of hospitality and welcome come the blessings of the Lord [and] in imitating God, the God of hospitality and welcome, the blessings of God will flow down upon us all.”

He thanked Archdiocesan Vietnamese chaplain Fr Peter My, who is Parish Priest of St Thomas the Apostle, Kambah, and others for their work in gathering migrant communities for the Mass.

“You are all very welcome. I particularly acknowledge the welcome that has been given to us by our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” he said.

“But [as the] oldest living culture in the world [and] our first Australians, they are never to be considered as migrants, the rest of us are migrants.”

Archbishop Prowse thanked God for the rich contribution of migrants, often made amid many struggles.

He called them “the strength of Australia and our common future”.

He implored “new Australians” to gather under the mantle of Mary and all the saints, especially the ones from their mother countries.

He acknowledged the important role government plays on legislation, particularly matters of citizenship and family reunions.