sea sunday message 2016
Apostleship of the Sea
Pontifical
Council for the Pastoral Care
of
Migrants and Itinerant People
Message for Sea Sunday 2016
(10th July
2016)
Seated
comfortably on the sofa in our living room, we find it difficult to understand
how much our daily life is depending on the maritime industry and the sea. If we
look around in the places where we live and work, we realize that most of the
furniture and IT equipment we are using have been transported by ships, our
clothes were shipped in containers from the other side of the world and the
fruits we eat were delivered by refrigerated ships from another country while tankers
are transporting oil and petrol for our cars. Without
seaborne trade the import and export of goods and finished products would not
be possible.
Even when we decide to enjoy and relax by going
in a cruise we do not think that thousands of seafarers are working hard to
make sure that everything will run smoothly and we will have a comfortable
vacation.
Furthermore in the
recent humanitarian emergency in the Mediterranean Sea the crews of merchant
vessels have been in the front line to intervene and rescuing thousands of
people trying to sail to Europe on board of overcrowded and unseaworthy
vessels, inflatable rafts.
Almost 1.200.000
seafarers of every nationality (many of them from developing countries) on
board of 50,000 merchant ships are transporting almost 90% of every kind of
cargo. The unforgiving forces of the open sea and of the oceans expose ships to
significant risk, and the seafarers are “risking their life” more than one way.
The physical life of
the seafarers is at risk because aside from the hazards of the forces of the
nature, piracy and armed robbery, shifting from one area to another and constantly
evolving and adapting to new situations, continue to be a major threat to the
security of the crew. Their psychological well-being is at risk when after
having been at sea for days or weeks they are denied shore leave and prevented
to leave the vessel.
The family life of the
seafarers is in danger because their contracts force them to stay away from their
families and loved ones for many months and often for several years on a row. Children
are growing up without a fatherly figure while all the family’s responsibilities
are on the shoulders of the mother.
The human and working
dignity of the seafarers is at risk when they are exploited with long working
hours and their wages are delayed for months or in cases of abandonments not
paid at all. Criminalization of seafarers is a serious concern especially
considering that in recent years a number of previously considered lawful seafaring
activities have been criminalized particularly in relation to incidents such as
shipwrecks, pollution, etc.
Encouraged
by Pope Francis who called the chaplains and volunteers of the Apostleship of
the Sea to “be the voice of those workers
who live far from their loved ones and face dangerous and difficult situations”[1],
as Apostleship of the Sea we stand at the side of seafarers to reiterate
that their human and labor rights must be respected and protected.
We
would like also to call on Governments and competent maritime authorities to strengthening
the implementation of the ILO Maritime Labor Convention (MLC) 2006, especially
the Regulation 4.4 whose purpose is: To ensure that seafarers working on board a ship have
access to shore-based facilities and services to secure their health and
well-being.
Finally,
on this occasion of the annual celebration of Sea Sunday we would like to
remind to all Christian communities and to each individual how important and
essential are the seafarer profession and the shipping industry for our daily
life. We would like to call on the bishops,
especially the ones of maritime Dioceses to establish and support the Maritime Apostolate as “a visible sign of your
affectionate attention to those who cannot receive ordinary pastoral care.”[2]
While
expressing our gratitude to the seafarers for their work, we entrust them and
their families to the maternal protection of Mary, Stella Maris.
Cardinal
Antonio Maria Vegliò
President
X Joseph
Kalathiparambil
Secretary
[1] Francis, General Audience, 22 January
2014
[2] Benedict XVI, Address
to the participants in the XXIII AOS World Congress, 23 November 2012