"I was stranger and you welcomed me... .…Lord, when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you?”
Matt 25, 35, 38
According to some sources, there are 27 million refugees in the world today, 30 million displaced persons (within the borders of their own country) and some 52 million migrant workers.
Many times Pope John Paul II reminds us this sad reality, denounces this phenomena as a wound which reveals the conflicts of the modern world and calls us to commit ourselves to assist all these brothers and sisters in the Lord.
We – as CLC in England and Wales - give priority to the promotion of justice in favour of those who are marginalised within our society. As a community we, together with our brothers and sisters in CLC throughout Europe, are supporting local initiatives that seek to:
Befriend forced migrants in local communities and those in detention
Address the basic need of forced migrants including spiritual, emotional, language, housing and employment.
Attempt to influence political structures
Foster inter-cultural and inter-religious exchanges that help the integration of forced migrants.
For more information on the approach being taken by CLC throughout Europe, please refer to the various documents on the European CLC website.
CLC encourages its members at a local and national level to increase their communication and collaboration with our sister Ignatian organisation, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS).
