Toronto Catholic leader: We won’t request Christian Syrians for resettlement first to Canada

….. we support taking “vulnerable” Muslims!

As Canadian readers know, your government recently came under fire by the UN and the elements of the worldwide ‘humanitarian industrial complex’ for saying Canada would prioritize Syrian resettlement by selecting Christians and other persecuted minorities as a first priority.

Consumed by political correctness?

In all the years we have followed the refugee program in the US, we have never seen any of the so-called ‘religious’ charities which are also resettlement contractors*** ever say they were concerned first for the Christians of the Middle East.

Now comes a very definitive statement by the Executive Director of the Archdiocese of Toronto confirming that the Roman Catholic Church indeed does not place Christians first in their concerns.  They call it refugee “discrimination!”

From the Western Catholic Reporter:

Religion should never be used to prioritize Syrian refugees for resettlement, said Catholic agencies amid reports that the Canadian government intends to give preferential treatment to religious minorities.

The CBC and Post Media both reported that the government intends to accept into Canada only Syrian refugees who face religious persecution.

Quoting sources inside a United Nations High Commission for Refugees pledging conference in Geneva, the media outlets claimed Canada clashed with the UNHCR over the government’s intended policy.

Neither the Canadian churches that privately sponsor refugees nor Syrian Christians themselves have asked the government to give special treatment to religious minorities.

In question period Dec. 12, Costas Menegakis, parliamentary secretary to Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, refused to say if the government intended to limit the resettlement program based on religion.

“We will prioritize persecuted ethnic and religious minorities, those at demonstrated risk, and we will make no apologies for that,” said Menegakis.

Speaking to The Catholic Register from a massive refugee camp in Jordan, the executive director of the Archdiocese of Toronto’s Office for Refugees said he would never ask the government to restrict refugee sponsorship to Christians or other religious minorities.  [The UN camp from which Mark speaks is almost exclusively housing Sunni Muslims.  Why isn’t he in Turkey talking to the Christians?—ed]

“It would be a big mistake to say we have to check the religion on the refugee. No. We have to check the reason why somebody has become a refugee,” said Martin Mark.

        [….]

Need, vulnerability and the immediate risk to individuals and families are the only proper criteria to determine which refugees should be resettled, said Father Nawras Sammour, Jesuit Refugee Service country director for Syria.

I’ll bet a buck that there are 10,000 (the number Canada now says it will take) very vulnerable Christians and other minorities in “immediate risk” they could readily take rather than the mostly Sunni Muslims which are housed in UN camps.

By the way, as we debate this Muslim vs. Christian resettlement issue, don’t lose sight of the fact that resettling any refugee is enormously expensive to the taxpayers of the receiving country and that there are many considerations, other than religion, that should limit the numbers to be taken anywhere in the first world.

I would like to know more about the refugee responsibility split in Canada where supposedly 60% of refugees are supported privately and 40% by the government.  Of course in the US it is 100% government supported as the feds funnel taxpayer money through so-called ‘religious’ charities.  If we in the US went back to complete private support of refugees entering the US we would learn very quickly who is, and who isn’t, interested in true Christian charity.  You know that old maxim!  Put your own personal money where your mouth is!

There is nothing that lights my fuse more than the wealthy Catholic Church virtually stealing money from struggling taxpayers so that they can play humanitarian big shots!  The USCCB (below) migration program is 98% funded by the US taxpayer.

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*** US resettlement contractors: