Archive for July 17th, 2013
Of Catholics, refugees and drowning at sea
Posted by John, July 17th, 2013 - under Pope, Pope Francis, Refugees.
Tags: Asylum seekers, Christmas Island
Comments: none
Christmas Island is an island much like Lampedusa. The Pope’s sentiments, stripped of their religious overtones, give a hint of an alternative way to treat refugees – not with brutality and demonising, not with indifference or even hate, but with compassion and love. Maybe it’s time to invite the Pope to Christmas Island to deliver another homily in praise of refugees and to rail against the brutality of our asylum seeker death system and all the asylum seeker death systems the industrialised world has set up, to rail against those politicians who promulgate a culture not just of indifference but of hatred.
Of course neither the good Catholic nor the devout Christian will heed the Pope’s plea because their real religion is power, and power under capitalism in an advanced Western country means brutalising the poor and the defenceless, especially refugees, to make the world even safer for the rich and powerful and their profits.That is why we need not prayers but a socialist alernative to fight for refugees and justice in an unjust world.