Do not marry Muslims.

Vatican City--In a new instruction on the problem of immigration, The Love of Christ toward Migrants, the Vatican has called on Christians to lead by example in the acceptance and integration of migrants in their host countries. "Christians," states the document, "are called upon with the witness of their lives to denounce certain negative aspects present in the rich industrialized countries (materialism, consumerism, moral relativism, and religious indifferentism), which might shake the religious convictions of immigrants."

Issued on May 14, 2004, by the Vatican's Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, the document establishes guidelines on the care of migrants and the approach to their integration. The large numbers involved--more than 200 million people according to Archbishop Agostino Marchetto--makes the problem of migration a significant "structural component of the social, economic, and political reality of the world today."

The document provides instruction on the co-operation of Eastern and Latin-rite immigrants, and offers guidelines on helping Muslims become integrated in their new community. It encourages Catholic communities to engage in "open and respectful" interfaith dialogue but warns against the naivete of relativism in religious matters.

Among the highlights of the documents, the Vatican warns against the intermarriage of Muslims and Christians. It also forbids making available churches and chapels for worship to non-Christian faiths. "Out of respect for sacred places ... we do not consider it opportune for Christian churches, chapels,... to be made available for non-Christian religions." (Editor: This would appear to overrule what occurred in Fatima on May 5 of this year. See "The controversy at Fatima," C.I., September 2004, p. 17.)

"Spaces for social use," however, "could and should be opened to persons of other religions. The social contacts made there would be an opportunity to favour the integration of the new arrivals and prepare cultural mediators capable of helping overcome cultural and religious barriers by promoting adequate reciprocal knowledge."

The document also provides some practical ideas for the implementation of its instruction. Among these suggestions, the document refers to John Paul's 1992 Apostolic Letter Pastores do vobis (I will give you shepherds), which explicitly required the pastoral experience of seminarians to include instruction on relations towards migrants. A national coordinator serving the needs of chaplains and missionaries who serve immigrant communities would "exercise fraternal vigilance ... and act as a link between various communities."

Comment

This document is the type of instruction about which Cardinal Archbishop Danneels of Brussels recently lamented. It is excessively lengthly, (81 pages), and bureaucratic, with a long juridical section of interest to only a few people.