Diploma in the Pastoral Care of Migrants

Migration is a growing phenomenon in Asia, and all indications suggest that it will remain an important aspect of the region’s landscape. The local churches in countries of origin and destination in Asia are called to promote theological reflection and studies on this phenomenon.

The instruction Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi states: “Episcopal Conferences will likewise entrust to Catholic university faculties in their territories the task of studying the various aspects of migration more thoroughly for the benefit of concrete pastoral service for migrants. Compulsory courses of theological specialization could also be programmed for this purpose” (EMCC, 71).

To answer this call, Loyola School of Theology, the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples (CBCP-EMCI), and the Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC) have established a special program in Migration Theology. The program is tailored to meet the different needs of lay pastoral workers, religious, and ordained persons involved in this ministry. It also aims to train students of theology in addressing this important concern of the Church today.

Admission Requirements

The requirements for enrolling in the Diploma Program are as follows:

1. Proof of proficiency in the English language through the LST English Proficiency Test;
2. Accomplished application and registration forms;
3. A letter of recommendation from the superior, bishop, or official of the applicant’s institution;
4. At least 2 years of college (or its equivalent) and a basic theology course.

Curriculum

The required five 3-unit credit courses for this program are offered during the first and second semesters of each academic year (from August to May). Four courses are compulsory; one subject is chosen from a list of elective migration courses.

Migration Theology Course Offerings

MTP01 – Introducing Theologies of Migration

The course focuses on methodological approaches in doing a theology of migration. It begins with anthropological-sociological perspectives to understanding migrants’ experiences, and suggests possible conceptual categories that can be used to construct migration theologies. Specific attention is given to the notions of “locus theologicus” and “signs of times.” Samples of specific attempts at doing systematic theologies from the migrants’ contexts are analyzed. Students are expected to participate in the construction of theologies for and with migrants.

MTP02 – Bible and People of God on the Move

The course explores some of the Scripture texts in which God’s people are presented as descendants of outsiders. In the New Testament, Jesus comes as a “foreigner” and offers a new perspective to discover in every encounter with the migrant something unique of God’s experience and to appreciate hospitality to the stranger as the pastoral challenge of our time.

MTP03 – Migration in the Catholic Social Teaching

The first part of the course traces the historical development of the teaching of the Church on the pastoral care of migrants, with particular attention to the major documents issued by the Popes and the Roman Curia. The second part will focus on the teaching of the Churches in Asia and on some thematic aspects.

MTP04 – Management of Pastoral Programs in Migration

The course trains students in skills in pastoral planning, implementation and evaluation of programs with migrants and the families left behind. These programs include, though not exclusively, migration programs organized and implemented in the parish setting. The course includes as well training for advocacy and networking on migrants’ issues. The course will also offer possibilities of exposure to organizations and parishes involved in the migrant ministry.

MTP 05 – Spirituality in an Age of Mobility

There are two devastating social movements that have intensified in the 21st century – migration and the swelling of an under-culture against, what Pope Francis calls, the “peripheries” of society. Of course, these movements have happened throughout the history of human race, but presently they have reached epic proportions.

This course asks: where and who is the God of migrants and of the peripheral peoples? The students will be asked to delve deep to explore the radical nature of the spirituality of Christianity. Central to Christian spirituality is the radical and mind-blowing nature of kenosis within the incomprehensible Trinity in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. In his encyclical, “Laudato Si,” Pope Francis offers pathways for us in the 21st century to address migration and peripheral peoples within this context.

The methodology used in this course is an adaptation of Paul Ricoeur’s “mimetic hermeneutical theory” of “prefiguration-configuration-refiguration” with its subsequent “surplus of meaning.” In brief, God became human in Jesus Christ who “prefigured” and “configured” the path. It is from here that we draw our spirituality to “refigure” the Way for our world today. Thus, in this course, we look profoundly into the spirituality we should bring to our perspective on the crises of migration and peripheral peoples.

MTP06 – Justice and Migration

The purpose of this course is to examine some of the ethical questions which arise from migration and to see what contribution the Christian social ethics tradition offers to the governance of migration. In particular, the category of justice is utilized as a promising development in social ethics. The course focuses, among others, on the perennial tension between the prerogative of the State to manage migration and the aspiration of people to migrate as an expression of the right to a more humane life. This tension is studied in the light of international law and the position of some ethical traditions. The development in the concept of justice, in particular distributive justice, is then considered, as well as the contribution of the concept of justice in the Christian tradition, to offer some elements for a more humane governance of migration.

MTP07 – Ecclesiology and Ministries in Migration Context

The course deals with the following concerns: What opportunities and challenges does contemporary global mobility offer to the human community where people of plural and diverse social locations are struggling for their identity, dignity, respect and acceptance? How have the Christian Churches been responding to the plight of the migrants in terms of its teachings and actual practices? What enriched ecclesiological vision and ministries of intercultural unity, catholicity, holiness and apostolicity can come about in a world with great social, economic, political, cultural, and religious divides? What kind of pastoral agents or missionaries are needed in the context of migration?

MTP08 – Pastoral Counseling for Migrants

This is a course on the psycho-social interventions and pastoral care of Migrant Workers and their families. The targeted population will be sorted out together with their all important issues for well-being, even as they are physically and emotionally separated from their own family members. The available interventions will be critiqued, and the class will explore other possible and effective service and care of them, both in their country of origin and job destinations. Derivation for personal Strategies and Plans of assistance in psychological, social and spiritual fields will be derived and evaluated at the end of the course.

MTP10 – Human Rights of Migrants

The first part of the course examines the origin and development of human rights; it discusses its ethical foundation and examines some controversial aspects in the human rights discourse; it then examines the theological foundation of human rights and the relation between human rights and the rights of the poor. The second part focuses on the specific rights of migrants and refugees, recognized in international instruments such as the humanitarian instruments of the United Nations, the Geneva Convention on the rights of refugees, the ILO conventions on the rights of migrants, and in particular the Migrant Workers Convention. The course ends with the analysis of the rights of Filipino migrants as contained in RA 8042 and in RA 10022.