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The head of the Roman Catholic Church Archbishop Jason Gordon wants Roman Catholic churches across the country to set up a Ministry for Refugees and Migrants, in every parish, to assist people from Venezuela who are seeking refuge in this country because of the crisis in that country.
In doing so, he said, the church will work with the “authorities to ensure that everyone who comes is documented.”
Gordon said over the years this country had opened its arms to assist migrants from all over the world who sought refuge here, “the challenge this time is we dealing with numbers that are a lot bigger and we are afraid because we don’t know how many people are going to come.”
As a result, he said, there is a fear that has caused a “push-back” to the usual generosity and hospitality of citizens of this country.
It is a fear that he is hoping the Roman Catholic community will overcome, “we as the church have to set the tone as to how we deal with the crisis. If we set the tone there will be a face of love and mercy,” he said.
The local initiative is in keeping with a ‘Bridges of Solidarity’ project initiated by Pope Francis to support migrants and refugees and those fleeing from poverty in Venezuela.
Nearly a million Venezuelans have fled that country in the last two years.
There have been a growing number of Venezuelans seeking refuge in Trinidad and Tobago and Gordon acknowledged that there are concerns.
“There is the fear of the unknown, the fear of the person who we don’t know, the fear that these ladies are going to come and steal our husbands, the fear that they are going to take our jobs.”
He admitted it is “not an easy challenge,” but he said it is one that will “shake us up and force us again to re-examine our Christianity and to ask what kind of Christians do we really want to be.”
Gordon said failure to act and to assist could result in “one of the worst social crises the country faces because then we will have an escalation of the negative.”
Speaking in depth on the issue on the Shepherds Corner on Trinity TV on Thursday night, Gordon advocated that as a people we need to ensure that “no migrant, no refugee is forced into prostitution, into human trafficking, into any illegal trade to be able to survive and the only way to help them is to integrate them into our society and help them to live with dignity.”
With such assistance, he said, “we put people at risk by not welcoming, protecting and integrating them. We have to work with the authorities to ensure that they are documented and that they can afford to eat, live, have a shelter and the children can get an education.”
Every little bit, he said, “is going to count in this.”
A local priest who worked in Rome and whose study was migrants and refugees will be working alongside head of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice Leela Ramdeen on the initiative.
Gordon said the church “will set up a programme to form support and to grow the ministry so that people understand where the real boundaries are.”
He said, “We have to ensure everyone is registered, we will work together in formation to move the ministry forward.”
In the meantime, he is urging everyone to simply start talking to those who have come, “find out if they are registered, how are they doing. Give them dignity. By being present and listening is sometimes more powerful than you will give in aid.”
Told that some people are charging the refugees as much as $5,000 to get their documents processed, Gordon said that is wrong and is tantamount to “exploitation.”
He urged anyone who is aware of situations where people are being exploited to report it because “that is illegal activity.”
Gordon is also urging those who know of any refugee in need of assistance to contact the Living Water Community, “call and say you need to speak to somebody in the refugee ministry,” he advised.