Catholics across the country are being urged to consider how they can pray for and offer practical support to neighbours around the world as the Church marks the World Day of Migrants and Refugees this month. In his message, Pope Francis writes on the theme “Towards an Ever Wider ‘We’”. He encourages people to reject the temptation to create literal or metaphorical barriers with other people, and to instead recognise the barriers that exist due to individualism or nationalism. “The truth however is that we are all in the same boat and called to work together so that there will be no more walls that separate us, no longer others, but only a single ‘we’, encompassing all of humanity”. Addressing the faithful, Pope Francis says the Holy Spirit “enables us to embrace everyone, to build communion in diversity, to unify differences without imposing a depersonalised uniformity”. “In encountering the diversity of foreigners, migrants and refugees, and in the intercultural dialogue that can emerge from this encounter, we have an opportunity to grow as Church and to enrich one another,” he wrote. When he switches his focus to the whole world, the Holy Father calls for “we” to take on a broader meaning “for the sake of renewing the human family, building together a future of justice and peace, and ensuring that no one is left behind”.