The Scalabrini International Migration Institute (SIMI) is an international study, research and training institute whose core mission is the
academic and professional education of scholars, researchers and professionals involved in the field of human mobility. It promotes pastoral and theological formation and research in the field of human mobility from an interdisciplinary perspective. Founded in 2000 as an institute incorporated in the Pontifical Urbaniana University, SIMI has offered a program of Licentiate and a Doctorate in Pastoral Theology and Human Mobility.
Since 2019 the Licentiate and Doctorate program has been included in the degrees offered by the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Urbaniana University making SIMI even more present in the academic environment to offer the Church adequate tools in the specific field of human mobility.
The Institute is also member of different global networks that study migration and since its foundation it has been training numerous pastoral and social workers in the field of human mobility by promoting knowledge, expertise and planning abilities.
The Scalabrinian Roots
SIMI is an initiative of the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Charles, Scalabrinians and is inspired to John Baptist Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza and father of migrants. On November 9, 1997 Pope John Paul II proclaimed “Blessed” Bishop John Baptist Scalabrini, assigning his liturgical feast on June 1, the date of his death.
SIMI is inspired by the vision of the Piacentine Bishop, whom considered migration as a natural right of an individual, an opportunity of encounter and a tool of dialogue and social integration among peoples as well as an experience of uprooting, displacement and separation which demands the intervention of the Church and society in order to protect the dignity of migrants.
Mission
Faithful to the intuition of Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini, the founder of the Missionaries of Saint Charles – Scalabrinians, and in line with the charisma entrusted to this Roman Catholic religious order, SIMI aims at further expanding the analysis and reflection on the biblical, pastoral and theological significance of human mobility to the social understanding of the phenomenon and its implications for the promotion of the integral human dignity of migrants and refugees.
Besides denouncing the many injustices related to the migration phenomenon, Bishop Scalabrini regarded it as an open challenge to the hope for spreading the kingdom of God to such an extent that he suggested a “providential vision” of human mobility.
Within the framework of its research, SIMI takes into consideration the interpretative frameworks on migration offered by human, social and theological sciences in order to build communication channels among these disciplines as well as at training experts and missionaries able to foster critical analysis, debates, dialogues, and capacity building.
Objectives
SIMI’s main activities in the field of human mobility are:
- Promoting an integral vision of human mobility in its manifold dimensions with particular attention to Christian anthropology and to the Social Doctrine of The Church;
- Offering specific tools to the Church at the universal and local level in order to respond to the needs concerning its mission with migrants and refugees;
- Coordinating events for social and pastoral workers operating in the context of human mobility; and organizing courses, symposia and conferences on the pastoral care of migrants and refugees;
- Encouraging theological and interdisciplinary research in the field of human mobility;
- Publishing pastoral and theological reflections on the phenomenon of migration;
- Cooperating with associations, universities and other study centres active in the field of human mobility;
- Supporting, from an ecumenical and interreligious perspectives, educational “frameworks” that build up a concept of peoples, societies, cultures and religions open to civic participation, engagement and solidarity.
Network
METHODOLOGY
Steering Committee
- P. Graziano BATTISTELLA – President
- P. Luigi SABBARESE – Vice-president
- P. Aldo SKODA – Director
- F. Gioacchino CAMPESE – Secretary
- P. Giovanni BORIN – Treasury
Scientific Committee
- Filippo Ferraro, cs
- Patrick Murphy, cs
- Paolo Parise, cs
- Lorenzo Prencipe, cs
- Giulia Civitelli, mss
- Elizangela Chaves, mscs
Today, the Church continues its mission to win the easy temptation to build walls and to instigate the culture of indifference and mistrust, starting from within its communities. To this regard, the role of theology remains central. Only by opening to the world and taking on its problems “in real-time” the theological work may acquire a way of building a future of peaceful coexistence among the differences within the human being family.
SIMI addresses the issue of human mobility through a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approach in order to further deepen and coordinate the many interpretations of both pastoral-theological, human and social sciences as well as of national and international institutions.
Our methodology favours the missionary perspective of the migration phenomenon by giving particular attention to intercultural dynamics and ecumenical as well as interreligious dialogue. Moreover, our methodology encompasses a vision of “development and integral human ecology” therefore promoting human dignity and social integration of the individual migrant and refugee and his/her family.
In each of its courses and training programs SIMI:
- Promotes the method of encounter and dialogue among the human and social sciences as well as the pastoral-theological ones;
- Gives particular attention to human promotion, intercultural relations and interreligious dialogue;
- Cooperates with the Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN), the “Federazione dei Centri Studi G.B. Scalanrini”, and with academic institutions as well as international centers for the study and research of human mobility;
- Favors, in the study plan and faculty members, an intercultural and interdisciplinary approach;
- Fosters knowledge, understanding ability, critical thinking and communication skills as well as how to apply these knowledge and skills to benefit others.
SIMI ONLUS
On October 23, 2010 the Missionaries of San Charles – Scalabrinians established a not-for-profit organization called SIMI Onlus to promote research, formation and action in the field of human mobility with the aim of better responding to the challenges posed by the phenomenon of human mobility both in Italy and in the world.
To support SIMI Onlus:
S.I.M.I. ONLUS
Iban: IT15 H030 6909 6061 0000 0016 483
BIC/SWIFT: BCITITMX
La emigrazione è legge di natura. Il mondo fisico, come il mondo umano soggiacciono a questa forza arcana che agita e mescola, senza distruggere, gli elementi della vita.
Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, L’Italia all’estero, Conferenza a Torino (1898).