At Group Level: Points of View and Attitudes Adopted with Reference to Emigration

Abstract

In accordance with the nature of Roman Catholic doctrine, the general approach of the Roman Catholic Church to international migration has its roots in a natural right to migrate. Church leaders have repeatedly expressed themselves in favour of free mobility, cautioning against overrating the sovereign rights of the State which detract from human rights.¹ Attention was focussed on this problem in two papal addresses (delivered in December 1948 and in October 1951). The first message says that

there is a natural right to emigration and immigration which normally may not be denied or nullified by the acts of Governments.