Seafarers are "pilgrims of hope" in their own way, said Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J. in a message released ahead of "Sea Sunday."
Sea Sunday, noted Cardinal Czerny, is an annual celebration in Catholic communities honoring those who work on the sea. It is marked each year on the second Sunday of July. Cardinal Czerny is the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Those who work on the sea, said Cardinal Czerny, are often "people who spend much of their lives far from their families and communities, yet offer an immense service to the economy and the development of peoples."
Many times, he said, this work goes unnoticed.
"This is why we want all those who work at sea to know that they are in the heart of the Church: they are not alone in their demands for justice, dignity and joy."
Cardinal Czerny continued, "Integral human development, in fact, includes all human beings and all their physical, spiritual and community dimensions. Wherever the Gospel is proclaimed and the presence of the risen Jesus is welcomed, the world cannot remain as it is."
Setting out
This Jubilee year in particular, said the cardinal, means that Christians should "more radically question the existing order, because the Kingdom of God calls us to conversion."
"Thus, the whole Church is also called to consider how people work in ports and on ships today, with what rights, under what conditions of safety, with what material and spiritual assistance."
Those who work on the sea, said the cardinal, "whether consciously or not, they embody the desire of every human being, of whatever people or religious faith, to live a life of dignity, through work, exchange, encounters."
"They do not stand still: they have had the need and the audacity to set out, like so many men and women Sacred Scripture recounts. People who travel within the journey of life. 'Hope' is the word that must always remind us of our goal: we are not wanderers without a destiny, but daughters and sons whose dignity no one and nothing can ever erase."
From the same home
Regardless of national origin, humanity is "brothers and sisters," said Cardinal Czerny.
"We come from the same home, and we are returning to the same home: a homeland without borders or customs, where there are no privileges that divide and no injustices that wound. Because this awareness is firm, indestructible, we can hope."
Seafarers, both Christians and non-Christians, are "pilgrims of hope every time you work with care and love; every time you keep alive the bonds with your families and your communities; every time that in the face of social and environmental injustice you organize yourselves to react and respond courageously and constructively," said Czerney.
"We ask you to be bridges even between enemy countries, prophets of peace," he said, noting "the sea binds all lands, invites them to look at the infinite horizon, to feel that unity can always prevail over conflict."
