A young migrant girl awaits the arrival of Pope Francis on April 3, 2022, at the John XXIII Peace Lab, an immigration reception center in Hal Far, Malta. / VAMP Pool
Hal Far, Malta, Apr 3, 2022 / 10:31 am (CNA).
Addressing a crowd on Sunday at … […]
Pope Francis waves to children while he waits aboard a catamaran to depart for the Maltese island of Gozo where would lead a prayer service on April 2, 2022. / Vatican Media
Gozo, Malta, Apr 2, 2022 / 11:19 am (CNA).
Pope Francis told Catholics… […]
Pope Francis’ general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Dec. 22, 2021. / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Dec 22, 2021 / 04:55 am (CNA).
Pope Francis appealed to European countries on Wednesday to take “shared responsibility” for refugee… […]
Pope Francis meets with refugees whom he helped to bring to Italy on his 85th birthday, Dec. 17, 2021. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Dec 17, 2021 / 10:30 am (CNA).
On his 85th birthday, Pope Francis welcomed a group of refugees to the Vatican w… […]
Charles, a 33-year-old father of a family who is a refugee at Pulka in Nigeria’s Borno State. / Credit: Aid to the Church in Need
Nairobi, Kenya, Dec 15, 2021 / 13:48 pm (CNA).
Not every Catholic priest risks mortal danger every time he visits his people. But a priest identified only as Father Christopher, who ministers in the Diocese of Maiduguri in Nigeria, risks his life daily to serve hundreds of refugees who have been displaced by terrorism.
The priest told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) United States, a Catholic Pontifical charity foundation, last week that thousands of people who have been displaced by the Boko Haram terrorist group in Northern Nigeria are forced to live as refugees in tents, scattered around the small town of Pulka.
The priest noted that the refugees cannot stray far from the camps because of security concerns, and because of the difficulties in moving around during the rainy season. The town is located close to the border with Cameroon and some 75 miles from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in Northeast Nigeria.
“There are continuing attacks, and some people get killed. It is by no means easy, and it is not easy for me either, simply getting here,” Father Christopher told ACN.
“Coming and going is always a risk, but it is important to me to do everything I can to help these people.”
Father Christopher himself is currently living in an abandoned house, since Boko Haram destroyed his church and the rectory in Pulka in 2014, ACN reports.
ACN reports that many of the victims of Boko Haram’s campaigns of violence are still refugees in their own country, and face daily trauma and anxiety. There are some 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pulka alone.
“The danger has not passed, but the Church is bringing them consolation and hope,” the foundation says.
The foundation recounts the story of Naomi, a Nigerian woman who watched as her mother was killed and at one point was forced to “marry” a terrorist after being abducted. The image of Boko Haram’s brutality, Naomi told ACN, is still fresh in her mind and it causes her to experience nightmares.
“I don’t want there to be any night-time. I wish it was always daytime. My nights are full of fear, anxiety, nightmare,” Naomi says, and adds, “I get frightened as soon as night falls.”
Similarly, Charles, a young father of a family who is 33 and a refugee in the same place, also admits to having recurrent nightmares.
He told ACN in the December 13 report, “I relive the time when we were living in hiding. Since the terrorists used to attack by night, we would get out of the town as soon as night began to fall and hide in the bush. Many nights I still dream that I’m in hiding.”
ACN reports that Charles and Naomi are now living in one of the 20 refugee camps in Borno State.
“Muslims are a majority in Borno State… but Naomi and Charles are Christians. Without their faith, many people would have not been able to endure so much suffering,” Father Christopher said.
He explained that the Islamic militants first tried to frighten and threaten the Christians, trying to force them to convert. When that failed, they began to get more violent, he said, and added, “The priests had to hide in the mountains, but the insurgents of Boko Haram continued to harass and persecute the people.”
“Eventually, the situation became so difficult that between 2015 and 2016 many people decided to pack up their belongings and leave the country, crossing the frontier and seeking refuge in Cameroon.”
Naomi recounted fleeing to Cameroon and leaving everything behind.
“It was by no means easy,” she told ACN, and added, “Our feet were swollen and blistered, and it was too much for us. My sister was captured by Boko Haram, but she had a baby in her arms and that was the only reason they let her go. It wasn’t her baby, as it happens, she was only carrying it at that moment, but it saved her life. Many other people, like my mother, were murdered.”
In Minawao, Cameroon, alone, there were at one point more than 60,000 Nigerian refugees, the charity foundation reports, and adds, “They stayed there for several years, until the Nigerian army succeeded in recapturing the towns and villages … and persuaded them to return.”
However, the situation back home in Nigeria is still very precarious, Charles tells ACN, and explains, “We were refugees in Cameroon, then we returned and have been living here for two years now, but the situation is still unsafe.”
“We are once again living in our own country, in our own area, in our beloved Pulka, but we are living as refugees. We are nearer to our home than when we were living in Cameroon, but once again we are living in danger,” Charles says.
Naomi praised Father Christopher for working selflessly to restore hope among the refugees who had lost everything in the Boko Haram attacks.
“Life in Cameroon was so difficult that we thought we would never hope again,” she said, and added, “Father Christopher is a source of inspiration for us. When we are down, he gives us courage. He is a true father to all of us and is trying to fill the gaps in our lives left by our missing family members, because many of them were murdered. He cares for us as if we were his own family.”
Naomi continues, “God is providing and helping us, thanks to so many people around the world who have not forgotten us. We pray that God may give strength to all these benefactors and that you may be able to continue doing your work and supporting us.”
According to Naomi, Christmas is a particularly difficult time for the Catholic community in Pulka.
She says, “Before the crisis, Christmas was a time of great joy, because our relatives used to come from a long way away and celebrate together with us. When the attacks began, Christmas stopped being what it had been before; we couldn’t sing Christmas carols in the community or visit other people’s houses; we couldn’t even go out of our houses at night-time. The situation was so dangerous that Christmas stopped being a festival, and we couldn’t celebrate it.”
Charles, a father of four, adds, “Celebrating Christmas is hard in our situation. Most of us who once lived in Pulka, have lost everything.”
He continues, “The Gospel gives me the strength to face all this suffering and to endure everything we confront each day. Jesus Christ foretold the suffering that we are going through. Suffering is part of being Christian. Our lives are in His hands. I am filled with hope when I remember the words of Jesus, that He will reward us at the end of our lives. Jesus Christ is my salvation, and that is what I celebrate at Christmas.”
According to Naomi, what the refugees need most, as the rest of the world celebrates Christmas, are basic necessities such as food and medication.
“What we most need here is food, tents and clothing. We are even seeing some cases of cholera now and we don’t have any place to go for medical treatment. It would also be a gift to get help with our academic studies; some of us were students before the extremist attacks, and we had to give it up because we had no money to continue,” she says.
Father Christopher says his wish for Christmas is for many people to feel the desire to help the refugees in Pulka, and for them to regain their physical, spiritual and mental health.
He says, in reference to the refugees, “They long for peace in their lives, for peace to return to their homes. Our desire is a very simple one; we simply want to live a normal life and return to the life we had before.”
ACN reports that the foundation is seeking help for a range of projects to help the “uprooted” people of Pulka, who include around 14,000 Catholics.
The envisioned ACN projects include a borehole to provide water for the refugees, the rebuilding of the St. Paul’s Parish house in Pulka, so that Father Christopher can return to live there, and help 23 Catechists who are working among the refugees from Pulka, both in Nigeria and in Cameroon.
This article first appeared on ACI Africa, CNA’s sister news agency based in Kenya.
Grace and Daniel have been stuck in Cyprus’ buffer zone for more than six months after they fled Cameroon. / Alexey Gotovskiy/EWTN
Rome Newsroom, Dec 3, 2021 / 13:00 pm (CNA).
As a sign of Pope Francis’ concern for migrants, the Vatican announced Friday that it is helping to arrange the transfer of about 12 refugees from Cyprus to Italy.
Among the migrants that Pope Francis is helping to bring to Italy are Grace, 24, and Daniel, 20, Christians who fled Cameroon after schools were shut down due to the Anglophone Crisis, provoked by tensions between the English-speaking minority and French-speaking majority.
The two migrants met after paying the same smuggler to help them cross from Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus to the Greek-speaking south, where they hoped to find asylum in the European Union.
“We were misled,” Grace said. The smuggler told them where to cross over the 16-foot-high wall that divides the Cypriot capital of Nicosia, but they were promptly taken into custody by the United Nations forces stationed in the demilitarized buffer zone.
“The most scary moment in my life so far,” said Grace, who injured her leg after jumping from the wall.
Since crossing over the wall last May, Grace and Daniel have been stuck in the buffer zone that divides Cyprus, which is also called “no man’s land,” living in a tent for more than six months.
In an interview with EWTN News ahead of Pope Francis’ arrival in Cyprus, Grace said that faith in God helped to give her strength in the difficult times in Cyprus. She hopes for a better future in which she can find work.
Daniel, a Catholic, said that he would like to be able to continue his studies once he receives asylum in Europe.
“That’s what is keeping us strong because, like our faith, we believe that in any circumstances that you find yourself, never give up in life, so that saying has been keeping us strong and I believe God can do something,” Grace said.
Elizabeth Kassinis, the executive manager of Caritas Cyprus, told EWTN that the numbers of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers arriving in Cyprus “have been really dramatic.”
“Cyprus right now receives more asylum seekers per capita than anywhere in Europe,” Kassinis said.
“It is a frontline state … all of the local systems are overwhelmed,” she added.
Recently, Kassinis has noted the arrival of people from Lebanon, which is in the midst of an economic crisis, in addition to the flow of migrants from Syria and African countries.
The Caritas Cyprus migrant services center in Nicosia receives about 300 people requesting assistance each day.
“Most of the numbers that we’re getting now are people who’ve just arrived,” she said.
Pope Francis is currently in Cyprus, where he met on Dec. 3 with a group of migrants, who shared their stories with the pope in an ecumenical prayer service in Nicosia.
“It is he, the Lord Jesus, whom we encounter in the faces of our marginalized and discarded brothers and sisters. In the face of the migrant who is despised, rejected, put in a cage … but at the same time … in the face of the migrant journeying to a goal, to hope, to greater human companionship,” Pope Francis said.
Pope Francis takes part in an ecumenical prayer with migrants at the Parish Church of the Holy Cross in Nicosia, Cyprus, Dec. 3, 2021. / Vatican Media.
Rome Newsroom, Dec 3, 2021 / 09:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis spent time in prayer Friday with m… […]
Pope Francis greets a migrant at a welcoming hub near Cesena, Italy on Oct. 1, 2017. / L’Osservatore Romano.
Vatican City, Nov 29, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis could reportedly help to bring up to 50 migrants to Italy as part of his trip to Cyprus and Greece this week.
Cypriot government spokesman Marios Pelekanos said that the Vatican wanted to arrange the transfer of migrants currently in Cyprus to Rome, Reuters reported on Nov. 26.
“This is a tangible expression of solidarity by the head of the Roman Catholic Church to people in need, affirming that the Vatican recognizes the problem that the Republic of Cyprus faces today because of the increased migratory flows and the need for a fair distribution among EU member states,” Pelekanos said, according to Reuters.
Pope Francis will depart for the Mediterranean island of Cyprus this Thursday for a five-day visit that will also take him to Greece. The trip is expected to highlight the plight of migrants seeking to enter Europe, mainly from the Middle East and Africa.
The last time that Pope Francis visited Greece, in 2016, he brought three Syrian refugee families from the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos back with him to Rome.
Among the refugees relocated with the pope’s help was Majid Alshakarji, who escaped the Syrian civil war at the age of 15.
Five years later, Alshakarji is now studying at a university in Rome to become a dentist and volunteers with the Catholic Community of Sant’Egidio, helping to welcome new refugees to Italy.
“We have been allowed to have a new life in a new country … It is a beautiful experience,” he told CNA in 2020.
Sant’Egidio helped to organize the arrival of 70 Syrian refugees in Rome on Nov. 29.
The refugees, who had been living in refugee camps in Lebanon, came to Italy through the humanitarian corridors promoted by the Catholic movement in coordination with the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy and the Italian government.
Pope Francis has repeatedly urged governments not to “lose sight of the human face of migration.”
Most recently, in a message on Nov. 29 marking the 70th anniversary of the International Organization for Migration, the pope decried the “double standard” that places economic interests over “the needs and dignity of the human person.”
“On the one hand, in the markets of upper-middle-income countries, migrant labor is in high demand and welcomed as a way to compensate for the lack of it. On the other, migrants are generally rejected and subject to resentful attitudes by many of their host communities,” he said.
“This tendency was particularly evident during the COVID-19 lockdowns, when many of the ‘essential’ workers were migrants, but they were not granted the benefits of the COVID-19 economic aid programs or even access to basic health care and immunization,” the pope added.
The pope’s message to the U.N. organization was read by Cardinal Pietro Parolin in a video message.
Pope Francis underlined that “we must never forget that these are not statistics, but real people whose lives are at stake.”
“Rooted in its centuries-long experience, the Catholic Church and its institutions will continue their mission of welcoming, protecting, promoting, and integrating people on the move,” he said.
Cardinal Nichols at Westminster Cathedral on April 18, 2019. / Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk.
London, England, Nov 25, 2021 / 08:05 am (CNA).
A cardinal said on Thursday that the death of 27 migrants attempting to cross the English Channel is “a tr… […]
Fr. Marcin Iżycki, director of Caritas Poland, speaks during a press conference on the Belarus border crisis. / Caritas Poland.
Podlipki, Poland, Nov 19, 2021 / 05:30 am (CNA).
The director of Caritas Poland said on Thursday that the charity wi… […]
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