Catholic bishops express concern about refugees’ living conditions

Ireland’s Catholic bishops have said it is “incumbent on civil authorities, North and South” to assist Ukrainian and other refugees arriving on the island of Ireland.

They were concerned “about reports on the conditions that some Ukrainian and other refugees are experiencing in Ireland”. They called for assistance for “those who have experienced hardship and displacement, and this should include cross-Border co-operation on the island of Ireland. As a church, we are working to improve the quality of life, and to uphold the dignity, of those who have come to our country for refuge”, they said.

The €4.3 million raised for Ukraine in parish collections throughout Ireland last March was “being sent to the international Catholic Church agency, Caritas Internationalis, which is currently operating on the ground in Ukraine and its surrounding areas,” they said. It was “also heartening that some parish communities have established direct links with Ukrainian parishes and local charitable projects to support refugees and those remaining in Ukraine”.

At the conclusion of their summer meeting in Maynooth, Co Kildare, on Wednesday, the bishops encouraged parishes and faith communities throughout the island “to continue to reach out to refugees in their local area and ensure adequate provision for their pastoral and spiritual needs”.

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Meanwhile, in Dublin, it has emerged that the auction of contents at the Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, last month raised €147,000. It will be used by the archdiocese to assist Catholic organisations in Ukraine and to help those affected by the war there, a spokesman said.

Preparation of the Clonliffe College premises to accommodate upwards of 620 Ukrainian refugees “is in progress. Most of the diocesan staff have moved out of the college with the remainder to follow shortly as the Archdiocese facilitates the conversion of the buildings by their new owner for the use of those fleeing the Ukrainian conflict,” he said.

On the ongoing Northern Ireland protocol controversy, the Catholic bishops urged “engagement between the United Kingdom government and the European Union”.

What was taking place had “the potential to undermine trust in the political process and threaten economic wellbeing. While these developments may be seen as simply in the realm of politics, the daily reality for people and communities in the North is that help is required — urgently — to deal with the cost-of-living crisis, the crisis in the health service, to protect peace and to serve the common good,” they said.

A functioning and stable Executive and Assembly at Stormont would provide “the most stable space to work through the important issues of reconciliation, legacy and our constitutional future,” they added.

Allegations

Teresa Devlin, chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, told the bishops that between April 2021 and March 2022 it has received 178 allegations of abuse against clergy and religious. This represented an increase on the previous year to April 2021 in which the board received 134 complaints.

Due to data protection legislation, the information had to be anonymised, Ms Devlin explained, so the board could not be certain what level of unique complaints was made as cross-checking was not possible, she said.

The more recent complaints included 140 involving sexual abuse, 18 about physical abuse, with eight concerning boundaries, and 12 were non-specific. “The vast majority of complaints relate to the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, with one complaint relating to the last decade and two from the 2000s,” she said.

The board’s new chairman is Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan who took over at the end of last year from John Morgan who had been in the role since the board was set up in 2007.