Catholic organizations issue World Refugee Day statement
June 20, 2017
Caritas, Catholic Charities USA, Jesuit Refugee Services, the Union of Superior Generals (USG), and other Catholic organizations have signed an ecumenical statement for World Refugee Day, which the United Nations commemorates on June 20.
“All around the world, women, men, and children are forced by violence, persecution, natural and human-caused disasters, famine, and other factors, to leave their homelands,” the organizations said in their statement. “The opposition by some countries to the migration of forcibly displaced people will not keep those who undergo unbearable suffering from leaving their homes.”
“Wealthy countries cannot evade their responsibility for the wounds inflicted on our planet—environmental disasters, the arms trade, developmental inequality—that drive forced migration and human trafficking,” the statement continued. “Societies that find the courage and the vision to go beyond the fear of foreigners and migrants soon discover the riches that migrants bring with them, and always have.”
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