Jesuits urge Cameron to ‘welcome’ refugees

The SOCIETY OF JESUS has made a rare intervention in the migration crisis by directly urging the Prime Minister to do more for the refugees from the Middle East now struggling into and across Europe, writes Paul Wilkinson.

In the open letter to Downing Street, the head of the Jesuit Order in Britain, Fr Dermot Preston SJ, said he hopes David Cameron will have the “courage and ambition” to use his leadership “to set a tone of welcome and hospitality to those seeking our help …” He said the Prime Minister has “a unique opportunity to lead Britain in a way that can awaken gospel values of compassion, decency, responsibility and charity, and that to do so would lay the foundations for a lasting legacy that would outlive any election cycle”.

Fr Preston was speaking after Cardinal Vincent Nichols backed Pope Francis’ appeal for every diocese and religious order to help, and the exhortation by Fr John Dardis SJ, president of the Conference of European Provincials, to show solidarity with the refugees.

A spokesperson for the British Jesuits said: “It is true we don’t tend to make public pronouncements, but it was felt that we should respond because of the direct appeals from the Pope, Cardinal Nichols and Fr John Dardis.

No comment was available from 10 Downing Street.