Who Is My Neighbor

Who Is My Neighbor?

A Film by Fr. Charles Vijay Kumar, CSsR

Available in late 2019

Fr. Charles filmed this pastoral documentary to make people aware of the issues facing immigrants and migrant workers. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus teaches us a neighbor is one who shows mercy. This documentary approaches the topic from three related perspectives.

• The immigrants: their reasons for being displaced, their experience of violence, their problems caused by natural calamities and poverty, and their struggle to find security and safety in a foreign land
• Those responding to the crisis through church communities or non-profit organizations, as well as Redemptorist missionaries actively involved in service to the migrant community
• Those trying to make sense of the situation, in some ways threatened by and resistant to immigration.

Who Is My Neighbor? is Fr. Charles’ second documentary. It was filmed in the US, Mexico, France, Italy, Russia, South Africa, Brazil, and the Philippines.

Among those interviewed is Joseph Cardinal Tobin, CSsR, the archbishop of Newark.

“Who Is My Neighbor? thoughtfully addresses one of the most significant crises on the world stage. A world with more that 65 million refugees and some 244 million international migrants (3.3 percent of the world’s population) is a challenge to ethical deliberation as well as national and international policies. Missionary disciples of Jesus Christ have a responsibility to read the signs of times and places in the light of faith. Fr. Kumar has made a valuable contribution to that reflection.”

—Joseph Cardinal Tobin, CSsR, Archbishop of Newark