VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday urged Catholics to work in wide-ranging ways to help immigrants and refugees, in a message prepared for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

"Show solidarity to these brothers and sisters of ours and ... promote, in every part of the world and by every means, peaceful coexistence among different races, cultures and religions," he wrote for the occasion to be marked on January 18, 2009.

What the pontiff called the "variegated universe of migrants" includes "students far from home, immigrants, refugees, displaced people, evacuees (and) the victims of modern forms of slavery, and of human trafficking," he said.

"This is the mission of the Church and of every baptized person ... even in the era of globalization," he said, noting that the Catholic Church is "not exclusive but on the contrary open to all ... without distinction of culture or race."

The pope traditionally prepares such messages well in advance of the day so that Roman Catholic parishes around the world can study them.