Bishop Van Looy’s powerful Synod plea for service

Another day, another Belgian Synod intervention. Today it’s Bishop Luc Van Looy who makes a powerful plea for charity and service. It is, he says, the way towards hope and credibility. 

Rome, 6 October 2015

To begin I would like to thank you, Holy Father, for a special sentence in Evangelii Gaudium. I am of the impression that this thought is of prime importance: “The Holy Spirit can be said to possess an infinite creativity, proper to the divine mind, which knows how to loosen the knots of human affairs, even the most complex and inscrutable” (EG 178). He can solve the complex problems of poor families, of people living in the margins, of people who have been separated because of war, and of those who have faith in each other. He can also loosen the knots of the Synod.

Migrant and refugee families suffer because of social exclusion. They live in poverty and can not take part in social life. It is hard to obtain civil rights in western countries. They have no income and are often not welcome in the area where they end up. Invisible suffering, poverty and anger are growing in our cities because of unemployment, especially among young people. We all know that commerce, industry, banks and technology are omnipresent today and that their free circulation knows no bounds. For people, on the other hands, there are strict boundaries. It is high time that we tell the world that people are the most important. We can not give up these migrant or refugee families and leave them to their own devices. How to give them credible hope? (EG 86).

In the parable the Samaritan is God Himself who invites the Christian communities to communicate His love to all people. Christians are not only touched by the destitute and wounded man on the side of the road, they actually help him and also bring him to the inn, which is to say: to the institution, to the Church, to the school and the hospital, and afterwards they also remain involved and keep an eye on him.

The Church has the means to be present in a very effective way for migrant and refugee families. With her international network she can, with the help of the experience of local Caritas organisations, create structures of solidarity which eliminate poverty and which make sure that ethical and social rules are respected.

Service, diakonia, is for the Church the way towards credibility. Thanks to the Second Vatican Council we have permanent deacons. Should we not focus more on the diaconate and service to help separated families? How to give hope to broken families, whatever the reason for their break may be? The cry of families in need must be heard by the Christian community and by the parishes. People in great need are loved by God, the Good Shepherd. They deserve our full attention, regardless of their origin, gender, age, social status, religion or the broken situation they find themselves in. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus went looking for the lost sheep, lost by accident or on purpose. Moses, too, went back to the unfaithful people to lead it to the promised land.

This leads us to the topic of mercy. Who are we to judge, to exclude people who live in situations which make unity impossible? Who are we not to use the means that we have to bring hope and joy to families who have lost all their rights because of war and poverty? We must start from the fact that God sent His Son to all people to save them, not to judge them. His mercy fills our hearts when we encounter actual people who have been excluded and live in exile. What they need is our love, which comes from the love that God has for us.

Msgr. Luc Van Looy
Bishop of Ghent
Chairman of Caritas Europe