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When the Mideast refugee crisis started, Pope Francis urged Europe’s parishes each to house and care for a refugee family. After a visit to the island of Lesbos on which he visited detention camps, from which Europe intends to deport refugees, Pope Francis brought back with him to Rome 12 Muslim refugees. The pope’s visit and action were described as those required of anyone who claims to be a moral leader.
Here in the United States we have presidential candidates and local politicians, some Catholic, who seek to ban refugees and deport undocumented immigrants. Unlike Britain’s Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who has denounced Prime Minister David Cameron’s efforts to keep refugees out of the U.K., our Catholic leaders apparently remain rather quiet in the face of this rhetorical and political assault on human life.
May I suggest that a nation, which has more than 17,000 parishes, has the wherewithal each to house, clothe and feed a refugee or undocumented family?
Vincent Gaglione
Scarsdale
