Over the last weeks the war between Israel and Hamas has come to Australia. In our local park each junction of the path is marked by a stenciled message demanding a ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Large, mainly peaceful, demonstrations in favour of the people of Gaza and of Israel have been Read more
Finding freedom in New Zealand after years on the run is a success story that’s left Esraa Al-Hoot (pictured right) wanting to do more. More for her new hometown, Timaru. More for New Zealand. Presbyterian Support South Canterbury helped a lot. Still does, in fact. Until 2010, her Middle East country of Yemen was very Read more
Many asylum seekers in Aotearoa New Zealand are living on $40 a week from a charity, while they wait for decisions on their immigration status. Some are even resorting to sleeping in bus stops. The Asylum Seekers Support Trust (ASST), a charity relying on donations, provides assistance to approximately 400 asylum seekers across the country. Read more
Pope Francis recently wrote to Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, thanking him and the diocese as a whole for their work accompanying immigrants at the southern border. Straddling the U.S-Mexico border, the Diocese of Brownsville is the southernmost diocese in Texas. It has long been at the epicentre of the church’s response to migration, Read more
The contemplative Benedictines of Solonka, in Ukraine, near Lviv, are used to silence and external solitude, but they have opened the doors of their monastery and their cloister to hosting refugees affected by the war. Since the end of February 2022, they have welcomed hundreds of needy families. “During the first few weeks of the Read more
A conversation with the 44-year-old bishop Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of the Ukraine Latin diocese of Kharkiv – Zaporizhzhia. Honcharuk describes life in his diocese at the moment. Could you describe the situation in your diocese, which has become the main theatre of this terrible war? Our Church is alive and active! Priests and faithful are Read more
“100 hundred million is a stark figure – sobering and alarming in equal measure. It’s a record that should never have been set,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. The war in Ukraine has greatly contributed to this record high number of displaced persons – with 8 million forced to move out of Read more
The pope’s visit to migrants and asylum seekers in Ħal Far has sparked outrage among many Facebook users who rejected his appeal for charity and overwhelmingly told him to take migrants back with him to the Vatican. During his two-day visit to Malta, the pontiff visited the Peace Lab in Ħal Far where he met Read more
People leaving war-torn countries, like Ukraine, for a new life in New Zealand all bring one thing with them – hope, an immigration industry veteran says. New Zealand’s history of helping out people amid violent conflicts include Polish refugees in the 1940s, Vietnamese and Cambodian people in the 1970s and 1980s, and people from Somalia Read more
Almost 1,000 Polish Catholic convents have opened their doors to Ukraine’s refugees. The UN refugee agency says by March 14, almost 1.8 million people had entered Poland from Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24. The Council of Major Superiors of Congregations of Women Religious (the Major Superiors) in Poland says as at Read more