Children in the Jesuit Refugee Service Safe Haven play and sing during morning activities. Kakuma camp, Kenya. ©F Lerneryd
“Displacement is about real people, and we must always remember that Jesus was once a displaced person.”
This is the poignant reminder that 53 international faith-based organisations, including several social justice ministries of the Society of Jesus, expressed in their joint statement to mark World Refugee Day on 20 June. The various groups voiced their support for Pope Francis’ exhortation to be close to migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and to make their plight our own.
“We wholeheartedly support the Pope’s invitation because the plight of IDPs is an often unseen tragedy that the global crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated,” the statement said.
They encouraged everyone to engage with forcibly displaced persons to know the urgency of their predicament and to have a clearer idea of what is needed to help them. They noted that there are more than 50.8 million IDPs who have been forced to leave their homes because of conflict, violence or persecution.
Advocating societal transformation, they said: “We call for eyes and hearts to open to action by recognising, contemplating, and sharing the life of refugees, IDPs, and migrants. Through them we can see more clearly the truth about ourselves, our societies, and the direction we must follow.”
The groups also raised concern that the social and financial crisis brought about by the pandemic could result in the issues of IDPs receding further into the background, and called for renewed attention to the plight of IDPs around the world.
“Covid-19 has stirred us to reflect on the displacement in our own hearts and on the flaws in our economic and political systems. Greed can so easily displace compassion. Deep in our hearts we know that care for others – not exploitation of them – makes us truly human. Mantras like ‘me and my country first’ lack depth and are the products of misguided thinking,” the statement said.
Among the Jesuit organisations who signed the statement are Alboan, EcoJesuit, Entreculturas, Global Ignatian Advocacy Network for the Right to Education (GIAN Education), Global Ignatian Advocacy Network on Migration (GIAN Migration), Comillas Pontifical University, Jesuit Refugee Service, and the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat in Rome.
The faith-based groups echoed Pope Francis’ message for the World Day of Refugees to treat forcibly displaced persons not as mere data but real people in our midst: “It is not about statistics; it is about real people! If we encounter them, we will get to know more about them. And knowing their stories, we will be able to understand them.”
Read their full statement here.
