My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
As we begin the Advent season, we prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has used the term “Flesh of Christ” in several ways to describe the poor, and, in particular, the refugees in our world who today are more numerous than ever.
Never since World War II have we see more displaced people who are seeking refuge in a world that has become, unfortunately, ever more closed to accepting them in their time of need.
The first visit of Pope Francis outside the Vatican following his election was to the island of Lampedusa, which is off the coast of Sicily. It was to Lampedusa where many of the refugees from Africa fled and tried to gain a foothold in Europe. Their hope is for a better life and, more importantly, their hope for life itself as they fled wars and terror.
Pope Francis said, “That image, that the poor are “the flesh of Christ” never left my heart. Every time I call it back to my mind it pierces my heart again,” which was a saying attributed to St Francis of Assisi.
In his homily at the Liturgy of Repentance on Lampedusa, as he called it, for those who lost their lives he said, “The culture of well-being, that makes us think of ourselves, that makes us insensitive to the cries of others, that makes us live in soap bubbles, that are beautiful but are nothing, are illusions of futility, of the transient, that brings indifference to others, that brings even the globalization of indifference. In this world of globalization we have fallen into a globalization of indifference. We are accustomed to the suffering of others, it doesn’t concern us, it’s none of our business.”
A year later, when he spoke about the poor and our responsibility to them, our Holy Father, quoting the great work of Father Pedro Arrupe, founder of the Jesuit Refugee Service, when he served as the general of the Jesuit order, said, “Empty convents are not ours; they are for the flesh of Christ, for the refugees.”
We are witnessing today in our world the globalization of indifference as our Holy Father has told us. Worse yet, we have been dissuaded by fear mongering that somehow all of the refugees are a threat to our security. Security clearly is the hallmark of a civilized society. And when it is threatened, we are right to be fearful. Unfortunately, our threat does not come from well-vetted and screened families of refugees who seek a permanent home in our land.
The scene of the crowds of refugees walking across Europe trying to get to Germany where asylum was offered is not the case with those refugees who come to the United States. I can personally testify, as the former director of the Migration and Refugee Services of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, that the process of vetting refugees is a long and complicated process, which now takes longer than 24 months. Refugees first must register with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and then be screened by United States immigration officials under the direction of the U.S. Department of State. Although the screening for these potential refugees is more complicated since most fled for their lives without any documentation, it is being carried out astutely with a clear understanding that anyone with terrorist connections must not come to the United States.
For instance, a resettlement support center, contracted by the U.S. State Department compiles all personal data about the refugees and sends it on to the Department of Homeland Security. The State Department runs all names through the Consular Lookout and Support System. Certain refugees even undergo further security review called a Security Advisory Opinion. All applicants are fingerprinted and photographed and again this information is put through an extensive database and reviewed by Homeland Security. In-person interviews are then conducted. All applicants undergo medical checks.
If a person is cleared for admission, he or she is met in the United States by the Customs and Border Patrol, which checks all documentation. Every refugee is assigned to a voluntary organization that in turn places the refugee with a local partner agency for assistance upon arrival.
Recently, the Diocese of Brooklyn has been asked to expand the refugee resettlement program that we already conduct. Here in Brooklyn and Queens, we are in a large metropolitan area where there are many Arabic-speaking people, and specifically even some older Syrian communities. It is to these communities in our Diocese that some families might be resettled. And I stress that it is families who are coming, not young unattached men. Many of these families are headed by widows, since their husbands lost their lives in the conflicts from which they are fleeing. In the coming months, we will prepare to receive a limited number of families, since the screening process has slowed the flow to a trickle.
During the coming Holy Year of Mercy, the Church puts out into the deeper understanding of the mercy of God. Truly, this mercy must be shown to the poorest and the most needy strangers among us; refugees from all over the world. They may come from Syria, from the Congo and many other regions of the world where today there is conflict. The United States as a nation has always welcomed refugees. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has resettled over one third of the four million refugees admitted to the United States since 1975. We must continue this tradition which is not only humanitarian, but also Christian, dictated to us by the Lord, Himself, when He told us, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
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