Last year, before Sarkozy’s Government, the French Bishops Conference has been invited to an audition at the Ministry of Internal Affairs to express its opinion about the immigration policies, and on that occasion the Bishops had highlighted the importance of international cooperation for development. This year, on October 1st, mgr. Olivier de Berranger and mgr. Claude Schockert of the Bishops Commission for the universal mission of the Church signed a Declaration in which the French Bishops Conference took a very clear position. "Christians wrote the two prelates refuse, in principle, to choose between good and bad migrants, between legal and illegal migrants, between citizens with a residence permit and those without. Whatever they are, they are our brothers and sisters as human beings. This is not about challenging the responsibility of the public authorities in controlling migratory flows, provided such control is exercised according to European and international laws". But "the increasingly strict measures taken against migrants" look "like concessions to an opinion that is ruled more by fear than by the opportunities of globalisation".
