ICMC Governing Committee Prepares 2018 Council Meeting

The ICMC Governing Committee met in Rome in late November. The committee approved the agenda for the next meeting of the ICMC Council and endorsed a draft strategic framework to be further considered by the Council.

The draft strategic framework will be discussed and adopted by the Council, the highest governing body of the organization, which will meet on 6-8 March 2018 in Rome. It is then scheduled to be implemented by the ICMC national members, Secretariat and staff between 2019 and 2022.

The ICMC Council meets every four years and is composed of representatives of all the bishops’ conferences, which are the Commission members. It serves as the highest governing body of the ICMC. The Council also elects the ICMC President and approves the membership of the Governing Committee, whose members are designated by their respective regions and serve a four-year mandate.

The Council meeting will also be an opportunity to showcase the work done on migration issues by the bishops’ conferences around the world as well as the activities undertaken by the Secretariat.

The Governing Committee welcomed the participation of Fr. Fabio Baggio and Fr. Michael Czerny, Under-Secretaries of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development.

Frs. Baggio and Czerny updated the ICMC Governing Committee members on the work being done with bishops’ conferences on the Vatican’s document “Responding to Refugees and Migrants: Twenty Action Points,” which is now available in 25 languages. The document is used to advocate with governments and to guide the Church’s input to discussions on the Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees.

Participants agreed to continue deepening the collaboration between ICMC and the Migrants and Refugees Section.

The Governing Committee received updates from the Secretary General and the Directors of Finances, Policy, Operations, and Communications.