Cardinal Sean Brady, Primate of Ireland, appealed to the Irish government to legalize the situation of immigrants. These, who upon their arrival in Ireland with the promise of employment, find themselves without a job. The statement was pronounced during the recent conference “From Pastoral Care to public policy, traveling with immigrants” which the Commission for immigrants of the Irish Bishops Conference devoted to this subject. In drawing a comparison between the situation of these immigrants and the those arriving in the United States without legal documents, Cardinal Brady declared: “When you are vulnerable and weak like these people, you are not in the position of integrating yourself. This is why it is the interest of societies to prevent the establishment of a two-level system”. Cardinal Sean Brady recalled that Ireland “who sent millions of immigrants all over the world in the past centuries, is for the first time the land which gives hospitality to foreigners”. “Any law or policy which divides the members of a same family poses a serious threat to integration destroying a fundamental human right, the right to a family life”, the Cardinal declared, and asked politicians to consider the importance of family life in the new legislation on immigration. At the conference held in Dunboyne near Dublin, took part also bishop Seamus Hegarty, responsible of the diocese of Derry and President of the Commission for immigrants of the Irish Bishops Conference, the minister for Irish Integration Conor Lenihan, who is also the former commissioner of the European Union, and Peter Sutherland, special representative of the Secretary General of the UN for immigration and development.
