Migrants crisis moves to top of agenda

Meeting the challenge the present refugee crisis poses will be far more difficult for Germany than German Reunification was in 1990, Cardinal Reinhard Marx said after allocating two days of discussions between bishops and experts to the subject, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

Cardinal Marx, president of the bishops’ conference, told journalists they had appointed Archbishop Stefan Hesse of Hamburg Special Representative for Refugee Matters.

The bishops reshuffled the agenda of their autumn plenary at Fulda this week to devote the first two days exclusively to discussing the ongoing crisis.

Marx said that Europe was at a crossroads and he appealed for European solidarity on the refugee issue. “Anyone who approaches Europe’s borders must be sure that they need not fear for their lives,” he said at a press conference on Monday. Cardinal Woelki of Cologne stressed that welcoming refugees was not sufficient if this was not followed by integration.

“It is above all crucial to see to it that no refugee ghettos come about. That would fuel social unrest as one can see from other European countries,” he said.

Swiss Bishop Markus Büchel of St Gallen said a meeting of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences in the Holy Land last week had demonstrated the importance of dialogue as those from East and West had started with very different approaches but the plenary brought them closer.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols and Archbishop Eamon Martin, presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences of England and Wales, and Ireland, highlighted the plight of Christians in the Holy Land.