How can Australia expand its goodwill so as to provide sanctuary and sustenance to refugees knocking on its door? This question was posed by Jesuit Refugee Service Australia during Refugee Week 2014 when it teamed up with The Wayside Chapel in Sydney to present a photo exhibition chronicling the resilience of refugees and the hospitality of their host countries.
At Pentecost the believers celebrated that they were “no longer strangers and sojourners, but a dwelling place of the Spirit” (Eph 2:19-22). With World Refugee Day just a couple of weeks away on June 20, I am reminded yet again that the experiences of refugees, who long to be “no longer strangers and sojourners”, and the celebration of Pentecost find a common thread in the life of Jesus and the message he gave to the Church.
Amongst those present for the publication of the 2014 Centro Astalli Annual report in Rome, was the Director of the Vatican Press Office, Fr Federico Lombardi SJ.
The event took place as yet another rescue effort by the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean lent assistance to an overcrowded boat in difficulty carrying some 200 people, many of whom women and children. Amongst them, at least one person has reportedly died.
The 2014 Pax Christi International Peace Award has been granted to Jesuit Refugee Service Syria (JRS Syria) for its outstanding dedication in providing emergency relief to Syrians since the war began in 2012. According to the latest UN statistics, more than 9 million Syrians are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, including 6,5 million internally displaced persons and 2,6 million refugees in neighbouring countries.
How can we accompany refugees without responding to their longing for healing and peace? This is the question posed in a newly-published guide that aims to strengthen the role of Jesuit Refugee Service in the reconciliation of groups of people displaced through conflict.
After his visit to Lampedusa, Pope Francis again made a call in favour of welcoming refugees at a visit to the soup kitchen of Centro Astalli (Jesuit Refugee Service Italy).
Refugees endure terrible journeys fleeing violence and conflict in their countries of origin in the hope they will be able to offer a better life to their children, the Pope told those gathered in the Chiesa del Gesù, a Jesuit church in the centre of Rome where the headquarters of JRS Italy is located.
In a statement dated August 25, 2013, World Day of Migrants and Refugees in Australia, Australian Jesuit Provincial Fr Steve Curtin SJ says Australians need to stop being indifferent to the plight of asylum seekers and start seeing them as human beings like us, in dire need of our help.
“Before he went to Brazil for World Youth Day, Pope Francis visited a detention centre on Lampedusa, an island to which people from North Africa come, seeking a home in Europe. Many die on the sea journey. The Pope asked, ‘Who has grieved for the death of these brothers and sisters?’
It was his experience as an ethnic minority in Thailand that prompted JRS Asia Pacific staff member Sanan to devote his life to helping Burmese refugees and migrants who had fled their homeland and come to settle across the border in the town of Mae Sot. As a member of the Thai-Karen group, Sanan knows what it is like to be marginalised: the equal rights he shares with his compatriots have not always been fully respected in practice, he says.
The Jesuits in Timor-Leste have established a new organisation called Jesuit Social Services to coordinate and expand its work in a country still struggling to establish itself following decades of occupation by Indonesia and centuries of colonisation by the Portuguese. The organisation is a natural successor of Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), which was established in Timor-Leste in 2006 following a period of intense internal conflict and displacement.
In late June, Singapore suffered from the worst ever haze in its history. The haze came from forest fires in Sumatra, across the Malacca Strait. A row broke out between some government officials in Singapore and Indonesia.