Panjim, Goa 12 March 2023 (CCBI). Msgr. Fabio Baggio, C.S., Under-Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development met Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, the President, CCBI and the Archbishop of Goa and Daman on Sunday 12 March 2023 at Archbishop’s House, Panjim, Goa and discussed the issues related with migrants and refugees.
During the one-hour meeting, Rev. Dr. Stephen Alathara, Deputy Secretary General, CCBI, Rev. Fr. (Adv) Jaison Vadassery, Executive Secretary, CCBI Commission for Migrants, and Rev. Dr. Christopher Vimalraj, Director, CCBI Bioethics Forum, Rev. Dr. Charles Leon, Executive Secretary to the CCBI Commission for Vocations, Seminaries, Clergy and Religious were also present.
At the personal meeting with Cardinal Filipe Neri, Msgr. Baggio reiterated the Catholic Church’s mission to welcome, protect, promote, and integrate migrants of all kinds. In 2017, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CCBI) established the Commission for Migrants to expand its services to migrants and refugees.
Msgr. Fabio Baggio is an Italian priest who belongs to the Scalabrian Missionaries religious congregation. He has been serving as one of the Vatican’s officials in charge of migrants and refugees since 2017. With over 30 years of experience as priest, he has spent eight years each in Latin America and the Philippines. He was the Secretary to Migrant Commission of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, when Pope Francis was the Archbishop of the Archdiocese.
The Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development is responsible for addressing various issues related to justice, peace, and the protection of the environment. The dicastery’s responsibilities include matters concerning disarmament, human rights, human mobility, health, charitable works, and showing concern for humanity, particularly those who are suffering, including the needy, the sick, and the excluded.
The dicastery also deals with issues related to the needs of people who are forced to leave their countries or who are stateless, as well as marginalized groups, victims of armed conflicts and natural disasters, prisoners, the unemployed, and victims of modern forms of slavery and torture, and other individuals whose dignity is at risk.
Rev. Dr. Stephen Alathara
Deputy Secretary General, CCBI