The Bishop of San Sebastián, Fernando Prado, has signed an extensive pastoral letter inviting the faithful of his diocese "not to let fear or prejudice mark the course" of their lives or "social coexistence" in the face of immigration. He also warns that this relationship must be based "on an alliance of reciprocity".
"I invite you not to harden your hearts, to look at reality with truth, yes, but also with compassion," emphasizes Prado in the sixteen-page text, titled 'Our migrant brothers'. In it, he also tells migrants that the Church of Gipuzkoa wants to "walk" with them.
"It wants you to find respect, justice, closeness, and hope among us. It wants you to feel part of the community. It also wants to learn from your faith, your strength, and your capacity to fight," he underlines.
The bishop from San Sebastián points out that immigration is acquiring "special relevance" these days because June 30th marks the deadline set by the Government for the extraordinary administrative regularization of migrants. In light of this, he invites the faithful to "welcome" the discourses delivered by Pope Leo XIV during his visit to Spain.
"When we talk about migrants, we are not talking about numbers, files, percentages, or flows. We are talking about faces, names, stories, wounds, dignity, and hope," highlights Prado.
He adds that immigration is "a complex and delicate reality" that "is not resolved with easy phrases or mere good feelings." "Nor can it be faced with instinctive rejection, unjust generalization, or fear turned into a political and social criterion," he asserts.
"The migrant is not just someone to be 'attended to'. They are someone to be recognized, listened to, loved, and incorporated into our lives," he adds.
He also warns that "true fraternity is not passive, but must be based on an alliance of reciprocity" and that, "undoubtedly, integration requires a shared effort".
"Just as the host society has the moral duty to protect and promote those who arrive, those who arrive in a new land, by virtue of their own dignity and co-responsibility towards the common good, must assume the duty to respect the laws and coexistence of the people who receive them (...) We do not demand to exclude; we call for mutual responsibility to build together a just community in which to live in peace and in which we all find prosperity," he emphasizes.
He assures that "responsible policies, clear legal channels, agile procedures, sufficient resources, housing, education, training, job placement, care for vulnerable minors and youth, and, above all, indispensable coordination between administrations are needed".
"A clear reflection of the need for greater coordination is seen when we consider that the presence of these young people on the streets or in situations of extreme vulnerability is distributed very unevenly in our territory of Gipuzkoa. For understandable reasons of survival, they tend to concentrate in the capital and larger towns, where there are more services and more possibilities to 'make a living' and find occasional help. This creates a real imbalance between different municipalities and requires shared, proportionate, and solidary responses, without leaving the communities bearing the greatest pressure alone," he remarks.
In his opinion, "opening paths for fair regularization for many people who have been among us for even many years is a measure of ethical, social, and political responsibility".
"It is not about evading the law, but about preventing the law from perpetuating inhuman situations, fostering exploitation, or condemning many to invisibility. A society like ours should not tolerate thousands of people living in a kind of uncertain, slow, and tortuous administrative limbo, where permits seem never to arrive, at the mercy of fear, abuse, or arbitrariness," he insists.
He adds that the extraordinary regularization put in place will help "their rights to be more recognized." "To regularize, order, integrate, and recognize rights and duties is also part of the common good," he emphasizes.
