A commitment to the pastoral care of migrants in Greece

In Greece, the Catholic Church is very involved in welcoming migrants who come to the country, to the Aegean islands and from there then to Athens.   

At the forefront is Caritas Hellas with President Anna-Maria Stella Foskolou and Director Maria Alverti, initially a small Caritas that has grown in recent years to respond to the challenges of the 2015 migration crisis with arrivals mainly from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq to the Aegean islands, particularly the island of Lesvos.   

As in so many parts of the Mediterranean, much of the work of this Caritas consists of welcoming, accompanying, promoting and integrating migrants who reach the country after desperate journeys. Great attention is given to the mental health care of migrants. 

Caritas Hellas has, in fact, developed psychological support programs for migrants tried by exhausting journeys, uprooted from their country and culture of belonging. It also offers welcoming spaces, especially for women so that they can experience “home” far from their countries of origin.   

Caritas Hellas has also not forgotten the aspect of promoting the integration of migrants by providing them with vocational activities, adult education projects and language courses to facilitate their concrete integration into the Greek social fabric. 

On another island in the Aegean Sea, Rhodes, the Franciscan community of the Custody of the Holy Land and the Vicariate General of the Archdiocese of Rhodes are involved in welcoming the thousands of refugees who land there fleeing wars, poverty and violence.   

For the past 18 years, there has been Father Luke Gregory OFM, a Franciscan friar and Catholic parish priest on the islands of Rhodes and Kos, who together with many people has been carrying out a concrete pastoral care of first reception on these Greek islands.

With the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East, the landings of refugees on the Greek islands have increased greatly, and the parish priest of Rhodes and Kos is there to welcome all indiscriminately and to meet the needs of first reception, in offering the refugees initial refreshment with food, hygienic products, a few toys for the children, with clothes, but above all with closeness, with sharing the situation of precariousness and hardship experienced by so many women, children and men.   

 Even with just the presence of solidarity and words of comfort and a smile, the wounds of so many migrants who flee the horrors of war can be soothed. In the search for a better future for them and their loved ones, they often face improbable journeys where fear is a companion. In finally landing on dry land there is a friendly face, an outstretched hand, a free and unconditional Christian welcome.