In advance of the Catholic Church’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Benedict XVI is calling on nations around the world to integrate immigrant children into their societies and protect them from exploitation.

“These adolescents belong to two cultures with all the advantages and problems attached to their dual background, a condition that can nevertheless offer them the opportunity to experience the wealth of an encounter between different cultural traditions,” the pontiff writes in a letter published on Friday. “It is important that these young people be given the possibility of attending school and subsequently of being integrated into the world of work, and that their social integration be facilitated by appropriate educational and social structures. It should never be forgotten that adolescence constitutes a fundamental phase for the formation of human beings.”

Benedict writes that immigration “upsets us due to the number of people involved and the social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it raises on account of the dramatic challenges it poses to both national and international communities.” But he adds that the immigrant “is a human person who possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance.”

He writes as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops prepares to turn its lobbying attention to comprehensive immigration reform. The effort is to begin with a postcard campaign in January.
Benedict writes that the theme of this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, “minor migrants and refugees,” “touches an aspect that Christians view with great attention, remembering the warning of Christ who at the Last Judgment will consider as directed to himself everything that has been done or denied ‘to one of the least of these.’ ”

“And how can one fail to consider migrant and refugee minors as also being among the ‘least?’ ” Benedict asks. "As a child, Jesus himself experienced migration for, as the Gospel recounts, in order to flee the threats of Herod, he had to seek refuge in Egypt together with Joseph and Mary.”