Parish churches are collecting and delivering clothes, toiletries and blankets for the migrants in Calais shantytown known as the "jungle".
The parish of Our Lady and St Joseph in Hanwell, in west London, has organised a collection of goods and taken them to Kent, where a local charity will take them to a French Catholic charity’s warehouse in Calais.
Another parish, St Mellitus’ Church in Tollington Park, north London, will taking goods to Kent in early September. St Mellitus’ has also offered itself as a depot for donations from nearby parishes.
A small group of Kent Catholics, who co-ordinate a charity called Seeking Sanctuary, are gathering and sorting donations from churches and faith communities and driving them to the Secours Catholique warehouse in Calais.
Westminster’s Justice and Peace commission has encouraged other parishes to organise themselves by area or deanery, but are still looking for a larger space to serve as a depot, and offers of transport.
“We feel a very strong calling to show solidarity with the migrants, and to show them that the Church cares,” said Ben Bano, who leads Seeking Sanctuary. Though he has been driving donations across the channel for 20 years, he has seen an enormous increase in support over the last few weeks and days and said they would have to hire a van for the next delivery.
The charity has reported a need for small-sized jeans (32” or 34” waist), trainers, sleeping bags, toiletries for men and women, games, books (especially religious books including the Qu’ran and Bible), and cooking utensils. They say blankets are in particular demand, because the warehouse has recently run out.
The bishops’ conference of England and Wales has announced that it will be making a material contribution to aid efforts, and discussing the situation with French bishops and NGOs.
Bishop Patrick Lynch, the Bishop for Migrants, at the weekend called for the redoubling of relief efforts, and drew attention to the causes of mass migration. “We must examine as a matter of urgency the arms trade that fuels armed conflict and civil war, climate change, unjust economic policies, poverty and corruption as some of the underlying causes of this fundamental global trend. The safety of vulnerable women and children who may fall prey to smugglers and human traffickers is paramount and must be addressed.”
Barbara Kentish, a fieldworker at Westminster diocese’s Justice and Peace commission, welcomed the bishops’ response and promise of aid, and applauded the efforts of the French Church, particularly Secours Catholique.
However, she condemned the “inflammatory and defamatory language used by some politicians”, and said that if Catholics wanted to be closer to the refugees, “we must distance ourselves from what our Government is doing.”
“The Government’s solution is just to throw up more fences. Germany is taking so many thousand refugees, but we are taking none if we can help it. We need an organised effort at the border, checking documents and granting asylum. Blankets are a good start, but we need to go further,” she told The Tablet.
The BBC Songs of Praise team has been filming in “The Jungle”, the main refugee camp in Calais. The episode to be aired on Sunday 19 August will feature the camp’s makeshift Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox church, which is dedicated to St Michael.
Above: A worshipper pauses inside St Michael's. Photo: PA
Loading ...
