Mags GarganThe UN Special Representative for International Migration has said that the parish system in Ireland is the best method for facilitating the integration of refugees.
Peter Sutherland, a Dubliner and former Attorney General, gave the annual Trócaire lecture in Maynooth last week on the migrant crisis, which he described as the “great challenge of our times”.
He said Ireland has a role to play in tackling the crisis because of the image created by Irish missionaries of a caring society and their legacy of “making an impact far greater than the size of our little country”.
He said the best way to facilitate accepting refugees was “working on the ground” and “that’s where I turn to the Church”. “The reality is that our politicians haven’t put in place and are incapable of putting in place the system for the integration processes or for the development of responses that a parish system should be able to put in place,” Mr Sutherland said.