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Churches in New Zealand have a long history of taking strong positions in the public square on social justice. In a well known example, William Rutherford Waddell found great inequalities and deprivation in the St. Andrew’s parish of Dunedin during an economic downturn in the 1880s. He was determined the church should make a difference Read more
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At about the same time as Pope Francis was defending migration during his visit to Morocco, Cardinal Robert Sarah was saying promoting migration is a misinterpretation of Gospels. Where Francis said politicians who build walls to keep migrants out would become prisoners of those barriers, Sarah said priests and bishops who defend migration are “bewitched” Read more
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Family pressures are familiar to us all, they are so much more acute here on the border. Jason is 17 years old, a Hispanic, born on the US side of the river, a spina bifida kid who lives in a wheel chair. His mum left him at birth. Magda his grandmother, adopted him as her Read more
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Three generations of Kiwis ‘down the road’, it dawned on me that not only am I from a migrant family but I too am also a migrant. 27 years in Peru; 5 years in Venezuela; a stint in Australia: 5 years here in the Rio Grande Valley on the border the USA with Mexico. Now Read more
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From the very first moments of his pontificate, Jorge Bergoglio signalled a departure in style from that of his immediate predecessors. His taking of the name Francis, his eschewing the full papal vestments, and his appeal to the masses gathered in Saint Peter’s Square below to pray for him, before imparting his own blessing, all Read more
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Take a tape measure. Unroll the tape to about two meters (six feet) and place one end against a wall. The distance between you and the wall corresponds to the world population of about 7.3 billion people. The number of people worldwide who left their native countries in the last five years — in other Read more
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Europeans are resisting having children due to a culture of comfort, with declining birth rates leading to increased migration, Pope Francis said in an interview. In a wide-ranging interview with a journalist from Portuguese radio station Renascença, the Pontiff said he wasn’t pointing his finger “at anyone in particular”. “When there is an empty space, people Read more
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One of the most distressing elements of the worldwide migrant crisis is that people who have risked all for a better life should be held to ransom by smugglers. The lines between migration and human trafficking all too easily converge. While migration implies a level of individual choice, migrants are sometimes detained and even tortured Read more
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In debates about refugees, asylum seekers and mass migration, a crucial issue is the moral and political status of borders. Do we think borders are good or bad, a necessary evil or a moral necessity? My contention is that those who argue for open borders under-value a sense of place and the integrity of the Read more
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The kidnapper sounded polite, even deferential, when she called on a Tuesday afternoon last May. Melida Lemus and Alfredo Godoy had left their clapboard house in Trenton, New Jersey, to pick up their two daughters from school. Godoy, who works in construction, was late to meet a client for whom he was building a home Read more
