Pope Francis will meet with refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos on April 16 to show his support and solidarity for the migrants. Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press office, said the invitation for the pope to visit the island came from Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, and Greek president Read more
A priest in Canada has allegedly gambled away about £266,000 given to him to look after by the relatives of refugees, the Canadian press is reporting. About seven or eight families who belong to St. Joseph’s Chaldean Catholic Church gave Father Amer Saka the money to safeguard for refugees who were due to arrive in Read more
Pope Francis decried the abandonment of refugees entering Europe in his Palm Sunday homily in the Vatican. “Even as every form of justice is denied to him, Jesus also experiences, in his own flesh, indifference,” the pope said. “Since no one wishes to take responsibility for his fate, I am thinking of so many other Read more
In a powerful symbolic gesture that is sure to resonate across the globe from Europe to the United States and Australia, Pope Francis will wash the feet of 12 refugees on Holy Thursday in Rome. He will do so on March 24, at a center that assists migrants in the city. The Vatican has not Read more
A Congolese Catholic priest has resigned in southern Germany after getting death threats and racist abuse. Father Olivier Ndjimbi-Tshiende, 66, announced his decision on Sunday in Zorneding, a small town near Munich in Bavaria where the priest has been serving since 2012. “We are shocked and saddened by these [death] threats,” read a statement on Read more
Pope Francis on Sunday called on European countries to share equally the burden of helping refugees who have been displaced by war and other “inhumane” situations. The pontiff said a “unanimous response” from European countries is needed to “share the burden fairly.” “The plight of refugees fleeing wars and other inhuman situations has always been Read more
In September last year, Wellington’s Anglican and Catholic Bishops asked the Red Cross how they could help the Syrian refugees coming to New Zealand. They were asked to kit out homes, and people have been giving from right across the region. So far religious groups in the lower North Island have gathered household supplies for Read more
The United Nations has released a 2015 update on the state of the world’s migration stock – those who have left the land of their birth to work and live overseas (usually as economic migrants, but also as refugees). The results have been reproduced in a number of interesting and colourful graphs and infographics (as Read more
Germany’s Catholic Church has called for a reduction in the number of refugees coming into the country. The president of the German bishops’ conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, said Germany cannot “take in all the world’s needy”. The question of how to respond to the migrant crisis, he said, should not solely be a matter of Read more
‘I did not ever think I would reach here,” says 17-year-old Jamieson, staring down at his dusty blue Crocs, given to him when he disembarked from the rescue boat in Sicily, in August. “I look back and I could have died many times. But I try to stop thinking of it. It is too much Read more