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on 19-10-2014 09:39 AM
ufoinvestigations, as your siggy is from the bible and it's sunday, here are what the Catholic Church leadership has to say on our treatment of asylum seekers and of course the Pope on an international level. I thought you posted somewhere that you consider yourself a Catholic and you have strict religious beliefs - apologies if this is incorrect. There is a lot more as the religious community (most of it) is very active in supporting asylum seekers.
Pope Francis would be appalled by treatment of asylum seekers on Manus Island, says Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge
Pope Francis
"Large numbers of people are leaving their homelands, with a suitcase full of fears and desires, to undertake a hopeful and dangerous trip in search of more humane living conditions," the pope wrote. "Such migration gives rise to suspicion and hostility, even in ecclesial communities, prior to any knowledge of the migrants' lives or their stories of persecution and destitution."
Pope Francis called on all to honor the "biblical commandment of welcoming with respect and solidarity the stranger in need."
"Jesus Christ is always waiting to be recognized in migrants and refugees, in displaced persons and in exiles, and through them he calls us to share our resources, and occasionally to give up something of our acquired riches," he wrote.
But individual and even national efforts to help migrants are insufficient, the pope wrote.
We now make this urgent plea for a respect for the rights of asylum seekers, not only in Government circles but in the Australian community more broadly. Federal decision-makers in both major parties have made their decisions and implemented their policies because they think they have the support of the majority of Australians. Therefore, we want to speak to the entire Australian community.
The current policy has about it a cruelty that does no honour to our nation. How can this be when Australians are so generous in so many situations where human beings are in strife? Think of the way the Vietnamese boat people were welcomed in the 1970s and 80s. The question becomes more pointed when we think of the politicians who are making and implementing the decisions. They are not cruel people. Yet they have made decisions and are implementing policies which are cruel. How can this be so?
Island dwellers like Australians often have an acute sense of the “other” or the “outsider” – and that is how asylum seekers are being portrayed. They are the dangerous “other” or “outsider” to be feared and resisted because they are supposedly violating our borders.
