Parish set to receive refugee family

A Catholic parish in Salford diocese will become the first to host a Syrian refugee family as part of the Government’s new Community Sponsorship scheme.

The parish of St Monica’s, Flixton, raised £9,000 through donations from parishioners and secured a three-bedroom house through a social housing charity, St Vincent’s Housing Association, in order to meet the minimum criteria set by the Government for those wishing to support people entering Britain as part of the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement scheme.

The parish hoped to receive permission from the Greater Manchester Authority to go ahead with the scheme on Thursday of this week, enabling them to receive a family by the end of the summer. A team of 25 volunteers from St Monica’s will commit to looking after the family for the next two years, helping them to enrol in official English lessons, access medical treatment and register for the local Job Centre.

“It is a big commitment,” said Mark Wiggin, chief executive of Caritas Salford and refugee officer for the diocese. “But parishes are part of communities and have a deep motivation, by faith, to reach out to their neighbour and the stranger.”

“We need to welcome Syrian families into our communities and I think parishes are uniquely up to it. They have the knowledge, the skills and a lot of people of good will,” he added.
It is hoped St Monica’s will inspire other Catholic parishes to commit to the resettlement scheme. Sean Ryan, one of the community sponsors at St Monica’s, said his parish “should be the first of many” to take on Syrian families.