St. James Roman Catholic Church

A Note from our Laudato Si Ministry

              Why Immigrate? Part 2

Human immigration from one region—or even continent—to another goes back to the earliest days of human history. Today the displacement of peoples is increasing exponentially world wide due to multiple causes: war, religious and

political persecution, hunger and climate change.

The Israelites left the Holy Land for Egypt because of drought and famine. Then they left to escape slavery  and worship their God freely. Later Mary and Joseph fled to  Egypt to save their child, our Lord, from violence against young Jewish male infants.

The following two videos offer scenes and stories of dislocation today. The first video (2 minutes).  is produced by

Catholic Relief Services. It gives an overview of the numbers of people throughout the world today who are undergoing forced displacement. It calls on Christians to lead the way in helping  the refugee and the stranger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjdqjNMri2Y&list=PLt5PsPjJAk2kTw_pItvrOlE8ohpNhAR5&index=2

The second video (5 minutes) , is produced by PBS. It focuses on climate change as a growing reason why so many

people are leaving their lands and traditional livelihoods today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xuZT7VkjVg