ishtartv.com - pittsburghcatholic.org
By
Carol Glatz, Monday, January 30, 2017
VATICAN
CITY — Giving priority to Christian refugees for settlement programs would be
"a trap" that discriminates and fuels religious tensions in the
Middle East, said Iraq's Chaldean Catholic patriarch.
"Every
reception policy that discriminates (between) the persecuted and suffering on
religious grounds ultimately harms the Christians of the East" and would
be "a trap for Christians in the Middle East," said Patriarch Louis
Sako of Baghdad.
The
patriarch, speaking to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the
Evangelization of Peoples, commented on an executive action by U.S. President
Donald Trump that temporarily stops from U.S. entry refugees from all over the
world and migrants from seven countries in an attempt to review the screening
process. The document asks that once the ban is lifted, refugee claims
based on religious persecution be prioritized.
Patriarch
Sako said any preferential treatment based on religion provides the kind of
arguments used by those who propagate "propaganda and prejudice that
attack native Christian communities of the Middle East as 'foreign
bodies'" or as groups that are "supported and defended by Western
powers."
"These
discriminating choices," he said, "create and feed tensions with our
Muslim fellow citizens. Those who seek help do not need to be divided according
to religious labels. And we do not want privileges. This is what the Gospel
teaches, and what was pointed out by Pope Francis, who welcomed refugees in
Rome who fled from the Middle East, both Christians and Muslims without
distinction."
Cardinal
Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines, president of Caritas Internationalis,
said any policy that gave priorities to Christians "might revive some of
these animosities and might even pit Christians against Muslims, and that
(also) might generate contrary action from the Muslims against
Christians."
"This
is a time when we don't want to add to the prejudice, the biases and even
discriminatory attitudes evolving in the world," he told Catholic News
Service in Beirut Jan. 30 at the Caritas Lebanon headquarters.
Emphasizing
that he had not read the text of the executive action, but only news reports,
the Philippine cardinal said announcing a ban being applied to specific
countries was akin to "labeling them — and the migrants coming from those
countries — as possible threats to a country. I think it is quite a
generalization that needs to be justified."
Cardinal
Tagle, who has visited refugee settlements as part of his role as Caritas
president, said he asks people who express reservations about receiving
refugees and migrants, "Have you ever talked to a real refugee? Have you
heard stories of real persons?"
"Very
often, the refugee issue is reduced to statistics and an abstraction," he
said, and when people actually talk with refugees, "you realize that there
is a human story, a global story (there) and if you just open your ears, your
eyes, your heart then you could say, 'This could be my mother. This could be my
father. This could be my brother, my child.'
"These
are human lives," he said. "So, for people making decisions on the
global level, please know that whatever you decide touches persons for better
or for worse. And if our decisions are not based on the respect for human
dignity and for what is good, then we will just be prolonging this problem
—creating conflicts that drive people away."
Canadian
Jesuit Father Michael Czerny, undersecretary for migrants and refugees at the
Vatican's new Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told CNS in
Rome that Christians are asked to reflect on the Good Samaritan and not to
"react and act as if the plight of migrants and refugees is none of our
business."
People
should focus on those seeking security and "take the trouble to find out
the facts" — like how "migrants, far from being a drain, make a net
contribution to the domestic economy — rather (than) swallow allegations which
just trigger fear."
Richer
countries should not only welcome those who are fleeing, they "can do much
more to help improve security and living, working, education and health
opportunities in the refugee- and migrant-producing countries," he said in
a written statement.
More
effort should be put into peacemaking and more resources dedicated to
"helpful foreign aid."
"The
role of government is to enact its people's values, keeping different factors
in balance. National security is important, but always in balance with human
security, which includes values like openness, solidarity, hope for the
future," the Jesuit priest said.
"The
bottom line," he said "is the centrality and dignity of the human
person, where you cannot favor 'us' and 'them,' citizens over others."
Contributing
to this story was Doreen Abi Raad in Beirut.
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