The Bishops of Belgium will be visiting refugee families housed in their dioceses on the day when the Catholic Church around the world celebrates the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. Each Bishop has chosen a family and will knock at their door on Sunday 14 January to spend time with them. Many of the families who are to be visited prefer to remain anonymous. Cardinal Jozef De Kesel, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, will visit a refugee family in Mechelen while Mgr. Jean Kockerols will visit a family in the municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert in Brussels. The Bishop of Tournai, Mgr. Harpigny Guy, will be a guest of the Sharifi’s, an Afghan asylum-seeking family, and also the Bishop of Namur, Mgr. Rémy Vancottem, and the Bishops of Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent and Hasselt will pay similar visits in their dioceses. “This Sunday – Bishop Harpigny wrote in a message to the faithful of his Diocese of Tournai – we will be celebrating the World Day of Migrants. Almost every day, the media show us the sadness of those crossing the Mediterranean, the horror of those who are sold as slaves in Libya, the loss of hope of those who arrive from the Middle East and of those who walk the streets of Greece and Central Europe. There are asylum seekers, refugees and migrants among us who are waiting to reach the UK. We show our solidarity with them by seeking objective information on statistics, the causes of migration, on reception networks and on the legislation in force in the Belgian State”.