St Joseph the Worker Migrants Mass - 4 May 2015

Migrants Mass procession at St George\'s Cathedral 2011 pic ICN

The St Joseph The Worker Mass For Migrants, supported by the Justice & Peace Commissions of, and Ethnic Chaplaincies in, the Dioceses of Brentwood, Southwark and Westminster, and Citizens UK, takes place at St George's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Lambeth Road, Southwark SE1 7HY on Bank Holiday Monday. It will start at 10.30 (Banner Procession), with Mass at 11am. The Chief celebrant will be Archbishop Peter Smith and the music from many countries will be led by Choral leader Frances Novillo.

Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of St Joseph the Worker in 1955. The Church has constantly emphasised that Jesus was a carpenter, trained by Joseph. Catholic social teaching stresses the dignity of work, and the rights of labour.

The Mass for Migrants has been celebrated every May Bank Holiday since 2006, when it was first introduced by the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, at the suggestion of London Citizens. It offers a profound witness to the Church's insistence that the dignity of the human person is God-given and never withdrawn and reminds us of the very deep resonance with refugee and asylum concerns.

At the present, many migrants are facing a number of particular difficulties. Each year, tens of thousands, (in 2013, 30, 259) of migrants and refugees are detained indefinitely in the UK in prison like conditions without automatic judicial oversight and with no idea when they will be released.

Citizens UK is calling to end indefinite detention by putting a time limit on detention for immigration purposes. They are asking political parties to work with us, and a team of experts, to set an appropriate limit for specific types of people who are currently detained.

The day also marks the 175th anniversary of The Tablet. After the Mass all members of the congregation are invited to an international reception, organised by The Tablet and the Ethnic Chaplaincies of the three dioceses and Notre Dame Secondary School opposite the Cathedral.