Pastoral guidelines for Gypsies published to aid process of inculturation of Gospel

(March 03, 2006) : Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao, president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, presented to the press on Tuesday 28th February in the Vatican "The Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of Gypsies". "These guidelines are a sign that the Church has a particular concern for Gypsies. They are the receiver of a special pastoral action in appreciation of their culture that, like all others, must pass through the paschal mystery of death and resurrection,” the cardinal said. Cardinal Hamao emphasised that everyone, in fact, should be welcomed in the Church, where there is no place for marginalization and exclusion. The one and only Gospel should therefore be proclaimed in such a way as to take account of different cultures and traditions: This is the process of inculturation," he said. "In the footsteps of its Founder, the Church should seek ever more suitable means to proclaim the Gospel also to Gypsies in a lively and effective way. The 'Guidelines' should help in this, as an instrument of the 'new evangelization' which Pope John Paul II so often requested us to engage in," the Japanese cardinal said. The guidelines gather the experience of the past 40 years, as the Holy See has offered particular pastoral care to Gypsies since 1965, when it established the international secretariat for the Apostolate of Nomads. Pope John Paul II established the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travellers in 1988.