IMPACT OF MIGRATIONS AND PANDEMIC ON THE PASTORAL

Abstract

There is no question that every time has its own challenges and crises, “sorrows and joys”, but the question is how individuals and communities, society and the Church deal with temptations and how they seek solutions. From a theological and pastoral point of view, the focus is on how to recognize God’s will in social and pastoral mess and muddle, how to “explain the reason for hope” and how to act pastorally. Through the eyes of faith, we recognise that migration and the COVID-19 pandemic are “signs of the times”. Accordingly, the authors, using the method of evangelical judgment, parsing social and ecclesial circumstances, question how migration and the pandemic are reflected in pastoral work. In the first part of the article, they focus on the occurrence of migrations from a social point of view, and then depicts the Church’s relationship to this dramatic phenomenon in the twenty-first century. The second part describes the impact of the coronavirus on humanity and its reflection on pastoral work, and examines how the Church is coping with the challenge of the pandemic.