HIS-Press-Service, 1978 (3. évfolyam, 9-12. szám)

1978-02-01 / 10. szám

HIS Press Service No.10. February 1978

Page 2

plane crews, emigrants, etc. who have no permanent place of residence. The individual national immigrant churches faced with the responsibility of caring for these people have their own representatives in the High Council.

The development of tourism has given new dimensions to the pastoral care of such "travelers.11 During the Second Vatican Council efforts were made to promote the pressing task of organizing the pastoral care of tourists (Christus Dominus ch.18).

In 1969 in his motu proprio Pastoralis migratorum cura, Pope Paul VI changed the instructions contained in Exul Familia in accordance with the new needs of the time. In place of the Consilium Superior, he set up the Pontificia Commissio de Spirituali Migratorum atque Itinerantium Cura, a papal committee whose field of activity also takes in the pastoral concerns of tourism. It is completely admissible, therefore, to say that the highest levels of Church authority have, in the form of these instructions, appropriately responded to the pastoral problems stemming from today's extensive population movements.

To the extent that they were effected by the new mobility, the Bishops Conferences responded much more sluggishly. The situation was best in the United States and Canada, which were viewed from the very beginning as immigrant countries. Here the national churches had from the very start been granted a relatively large amount of independence in gathering together their faithful. Through the establishment of individual parishes for the various nationalities, these national churches experienced significant support from the Church as a whole in their role as bearers and preservers of ethnic consciousness.

In Europe, the pastoral care of foreigners first became a large-scale concern in connection with the streams of refugees after World War II. Due to a lack of practical experience, it was the integration of the immigrants that the Bishops Conferences of the host countries considered to be their primary task. The Bishops Conferences thus tended to disapprove of efforts aimed at the founding of foreignlanguage institutions. This stemmed from the concern that their new faithful might become threatened with isolationism through the formation of national groupings.

The greatest understanding for these problems was shown by the Bishops Conference of West Germany. This country, which provided a new home and secure existence for 15 million refugees, was hit most strongly by the refugee problem. Since, however, the vast majority of the refugees were Germans, it took quite some time before here too the realization was acquired that pastoral care in the mother tongue is a need stemming from basic human rights.

Published by the Hungarian Institute for Sociology of Religion /HIS/ - President:

Bishop Stefan Laszlo, D.D., Eisenstadt - Editorial Board: Emeric András, Ph.D./Vienna/, Julius Morel, Ph.D /Innsbruck/, Julianna Ujváry M.A. /Vienna/. - A-+140 Wien,

Linzer Str. 263/18, Phone /0 22 2/ 94 21 89. Österr.Postsparkassenkto. 7739 006.

Eigentümer, Herausgeber und Verleger: Ungarisches Kirchensoziologisches Institut.

Für den Inhalt verantwortlich: Dr. Emmerich András, beide: A-II40 Wien, Linzer Str.263/18. Druck: OffsetschneI I druck Anton Riegelnik, A-1080 Piaristengasse 19.