Paris bishop visits RP to boost efforts for OFW welfare

A Roman Catholic bishop from Paris, France visited the country this week to boost efforts to protect the welfare of Filipino migrants in France, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said on Saturday.

Paris Auxiliary Bishop Eric de Moulin-Beaufort paid a visit to the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Migrant and Itinerant People (ECMI) to bolster coordination between the Filipino community in France and the Catholic Church in the country, the CBCP said in a news report posted on its website.

“He learned about the CBCP’s response and concerns affecting the OFWs and their families left behind," CBCP-EMCI executive secretary Fr. Edwin Corros said in the report.

With Moulin-Beaufort during his visit were Fr. Gil Apuli, chaplain of the Filipino community in Paris, and Elpidio Caimoy, coordinator of the Filipino Pastoral Council.

According to Apuli, at least 40,000 documented Filipinos are currently working in France, mostly in Paris, Marseilles and Nice.

During the visit, the CBCP laid down different programs and services for Filipino migrant workers in France, and for the families they left behind in the Philippines.

The CBCP is also eyeing the possibility of setting up ordinariates, or units of the Catholic Church overseen by bishops, that will serve the needs of Filipino migrants and marginalized sectors.

These plans will be discussed in a national convention of Catholic Church canon lawyers to be held from April 12 to 15 in Tagbilaran, Bohol.—Andreo C. Calonzo/JV, GMANews.TV

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