I WAS chatting with a friend recently about a compassionate response to asylum seekers.
His response was startling.
“What does compassion have to do with our border protection policy?”
I suggested the Church taught that the demands of human dignity always came before the national interest.
Nope, not for him.
“These queue jumpers need to go back from where they come from,” he said.
“They take Australian jobs and cause nothing but problems.”
A worrying perspective from a highly educated man who is at Mass every weekend.
The Church teaches that all people have the right to live a dignified life in their homeland.
But more than 50 million people around the world are displaced.
I asked him what the words of Jesus in the Matthew’s Gospel meant when he said: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me. I was ill and you comforted me, in prison and you visited me.”
I thought they would be words to awaken the conscience of any Catholic, but there was no response.
And many people I meet at Church or community events and letter writers to The Catholic Leader believe asylum seekers should be put on the next boat home.
But do we consider why they are fleeing?
Were our descendants not all migrants to this country except for indigenous brothers and sisters.
The varying opinions of asylum seeking come as Catholics groups from across the country denounce the Federal Government’s plans to return 267 vulnerable people seeking asylum to Nauru.
The decision was condemned as breaching Australia’s responsibility to respect the human dignity and lives of those in its care.
Melbourne Bishop Vincent Long, a former refugee, called on the Australian government to protect people seeking asylum from harm and respect their human dignity.
“I urge the Australian Government to ensure that no child is subject to an unsafe and harmful environment and that no-one is returned to where they may face physical, psychological and sexual violence and harm,” he said.
“The Catholic Church is prepared to collaborate with other community organisations to provide support for asylum seekers.”
Catholic healthcare, social welfare and community groups have pledged to help the asylum seekers, but what can we doing individually to support asylum seekers?
As Lent begins, prayer, fasting, almsgiving a little sacrifices could all help those who are fleeing from oppression.
The Church teaches that anyone whose life is threatened has the right to protection.
Whether because of persecution, armed conflicts, natural disasters, or economic conditions threatening their lives or physical integrity.
It is the element of persecution, threat or danger, or being forcibly displaced that gives rise to a right to seek asylum rather than to migrate through ordinary channels.
The Church teaches that all nations have a right to regulate migration across their borders.
This right is coupled with the duty to protect and help innocent victims and those fleeing for their lives.
One would hope that borders are for the protection of people, not for the exclusion of people seeking protection.
As a community and as individuals, we must find more ways to welcome the stranger, regardless of their mode of transportation.
Matt Emerick is the managing editor of The Catholic Leader.
