Asian Countries Adapt CBCP’s Exodus Program for Migrant Workers

MANILA, Dec. 16, 2009─A formation program for pastoral workers under the auspices of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has recently been adapted by neighboring Asian countries for training their migrant workers.

The Exodus program provides pastoral workers the opportunity to learn more about migration realities and let them appreciate the work they had been doing.

Organized by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore, the seminar was held in Majodi Pastoral Center in Johor, Malaysia from December 3-6.

Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, the current president of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and itinerant People of the Bishops Conference of Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore celebrated the Eucharist at the opening of the seminar.

Fr. Edwin Corros, ECMI executive secretary, together with Dr. Marla Asis and Dr. Fabio Baggio of the Scalabrini Migration Center facilitated the formation seminar.

The Exodus Formation Seminar was first initiated in 2001 by Scalabrini Migration Center, but it is now under the direction of the CBCP'episcopal commission.

Corros spoke on the topic of building awareness, pastoral care and advocacy for migrants and refugees. He also discussed the pastoral planning for the ministry of migrants and refugees drawing from his own experience as executive secretary of the CBCP's migrants' commission.

Baggio, director of the Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC), a leading research and study institution specializing on human mobility based in Asia, gave participants an understanding of the theological readings of migration.

Asis, editor of the Asian and Pacific Migration Journal of the SMC, presented the trends, flows and gender dimension of migration from the global to Asian perspective.

A select group of resource speakers from three countries of the bishops' conference had likewise shared an overview of the migrants and refugees' situation in their respective countries.

"A dream come true"

A member of the organizing committee, Cheryl Lee, hailed the formation seminar as "a dream come true", saying that it was what they had been wishing for many years to undergo.

Originally designed as a week-long course, the seminar was shortened to three days to adjust to the realities of the countries involved in the formation program.

Mostly attended by lay people, several of the 60 participants are already actively involved in the ministry while a few others are engaged in the pastoral care of the refugees. In a rare occasion to undergo formation, priests and religious took a break from their parish commitment and flew to the peninsular Malaysia to attend the seminar.