Bishops admit they failed to protect Christian refugees

The German bishops have produced guidelines aimed at protecting Christians from being persecuted by Muslims in refugee camps in Germany. They admit the Church has not given sufficient attention to situations in which Christian refugees have been ostracised, harassed and even openly attacked by Muslims.

The bishops devoted a whole day of their four-day plenary last week to discussing the refugee crisis, which they made a top priority, and published guidelines on how the Church should cope with the more than one million refugees that Germany has taken in. One guideline is devoted to providing pastoral care for and helping to integrate Christian refugees, particularly those who belong to Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome.

“We are particularly obliged to help the large number of Christians who have had to flee  the Middle East. It must be guaranteed that Christian refugees are neither ostracised nor harassed because of their Christian faith particularly in the initial reception centres,” says the document.

“It is intolerable that Christians are being harassed and prevented from professing their faith. The security forces are called on to stop this happening”, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne told the Tagespost. A Protestant pastor, Gottfried Martens, has claimed that Muslims in refugee shelters have forced Christians to watch videos of beheadings, refused them use of kitchens and torn crosses from their necks.

The Bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo S.J., attended the plenary.