Migrations
While feedback about the election in Mecklemburg-Pomerania is being read and discussed, after the victory of the far right populist party Alternative for Germany (Afd) and the defeat of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian democrat party Cdu, the website of the German Catholic Church Katholisch.de posted a survey of the way refugees and asylum seekers are being taken in by the German dioceses, one year after the big crisis that followed the opening of the borders with Hungary on September 5th 2015, to let in the flows of desperate asylum-seeking people. “Huge volunteer efforts were made in 2015 but sometimes there was no one to supervise them, and that’s why I accepted the task to coordinate the aids for refugees in the archdiocese”, said Burkhard Conrad, director of the archdiocese of Hamburg, about the efforts made with refugees. In the short term, Conrad sees two big challenges: firstly, “giving pride of place to information and education”, in the attempt to create mutual understanding for Christian-Islamic dialogue. Secondly, “supporting the Catholic refugees who are about to set up their own communities”. Thomas Broch, episcopal commissioner for refugees of the diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, pointed out: “Family members far from each other are separated for such a long time that article 6 of our Constitution is denied, and our Christian understanding of the family is disavowed”.
