Tag: Pope

Citizens on Italian Island Continue to Suffer Seven Years After Pope Invites Migrants

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe News…..

It was seven years ago, in the summer of 2013, when Pope Francis made his first official trip outside of Rome after becoming the head socialist honcho of the Catholic Church.

I reported his triumphant arrival on the island of Lampedusa to welcome the mass movement of migrants to Europe and to pray for the invaders safety—a story that is disappearing down the memory hole.

Pope lectures on Lampedusa

 

See what Lampedusa, a former tourist destination, has become (hat tip: Dragon’s Lair):

From the RAIR Foundation:

‘EXCREMENT EVERYWHERE’: ITALIAN OFFICIALS IGNORE WOMAN’S PLEA TO REMOVE SQUATTING, DOG-EATING ISLAMIC MIGRANTS FROM HER PROPERTY (VIDEO)

A video translated by RAIR Foundation USA reveals a distraught woman in Lampedusa, Italy complaining about illegal migrants squatting on her land even after she repeatedly tries to report the problem to authorities. In addition to the “mattresses,” “bottles of alcohol,” and “excrement everywhere,” Rosy Matinais explains that the Muslim migrants have eaten all of her animals, including dogs, with the exception of pigs.

Ms. Matinais, a farmer who lives off the crops on her land, earns her living from raising farm animals. “They have eaten chickens, the goats, the dogs,” she said. “I can’t have any more animals. I only have pigs.” The illegal migrants ate four of her dogs by skinning them and grilling them, she explained.

According to Italian newspaper ilgiornale.it, her father purchased the property on the island in 1967. Lampedusa, Italy, at the southernmost part of Italy, has become an epicenter for the socialist-driven illegal migrant invasion. The tiny island, an Italian tourist destination, has a population of about 6,000. There have been times when the migrants outnumbered the citizens. Socialist Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte “reversed [former Deputy Prime Minister Matteo] Salvini’s immigration stance when he came to power,” as reported at RAIR.

[….]

Hundreds of migrants have been landing daily in this beautiful Southern Italian coastal town that survives on tourism. Rosey and her native Italians have been failed by left-wing politicians pushing open border policies at all costs. Not only are these elected leaders turning a deaf ear to the unspeakable problems citizens are facing but they smear anyone who goes public with their stories.

More here including a video.

I’ve wondered over the years whether Americans might wake up (nevermind more serious issues) once they understood how Muslims treat dogs.

See my extensive files on the Invasion of Europe that extend back for more than a decade.

Oh, and by the way, the Southern Poverty Law Center has targeted RAIR, gave it a stamp of disapproval, so therefore you should visit the site every chance you get!

Catholic News Service Tells Untruth about Refugee Act of 1980

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

I wasn’t planning to post anything this morning because I figured I really needed to catch up on all of my e-mails and other messages on social media.  I don’t want to appear rude and not respond to your many inquiries, but it seems that I can never catch up!  (LOL! New readers may not know that I have no staff, I just do what I can on my own.)

Anyway, my plan was to do some catching-up this morning until the first article I read in my alerts was this one from the Catholic Standard peddling the myth I thought had been corrected long ago when Grover Norquist (of all people) was selling the fake news that Ronald Reagan signed the Refugee Act of 1980 into law.

But, alas here it is again!

Revisionist history is not a good look!

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops was testifying along with others in the refugee industry at a House hearing this past week.

Bishop urges Congress to show compassion, solidarity with refugees

 

WASHINGTON (CNS) — During a Feb. 27 congressional hearing about the status of the nation’s refugee program, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville quoted someone who is not frequently mentioned on Capitol Hill: Pope Francis.

“Today I am here to echo the Holy Father’s message: to recognize that we must at all times, but particularly at this moment of great global turmoil, recognize the most vulnerable and welcome them to the extent we are able,” he said.

In his testimony the Catholic Bishop reminds us of the Pope’s visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013 which I believe helped inspire even more migrants to risk their lives to illegally enter Europe. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2013/07/09/pope-lectures-on-lampedusa/

The bishop, chairman of the migration committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, pointed out to the members of Congress and others seated in the hearing room that he was there to offer his perspective as a naturalized immigrant to the United States from Colombia.

He was one on a panel of four people addressing the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, looking at the status of the U.S. Refugee Program, a week before 40th anniversary of the bipartisan Refugee Act of 1980, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.

Bipartisan my foot!

The Refugee Act of 1980 was the brainchild of Senator Ted Kennedy; Senator Joe Biden was a chief sponsor; and it was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on March 17,1980 (St. Patrick’s day as a gesture to Kennedy).

Reagan was not elected president until November of that year.

I hate it when Christians lie! The ends do not justify the means!

Don’t believe me, how about believing the National Archives:

 

No bipartisanship here:  Warren Magnuson, Tip O’Neill, and Jimmy Carter DEMOCRATS all!

Get ready for all sorts of media hoopla this month as the Refugee Act of 1980 is 40 years old!

If your local media runs any story that mentions Reagan signing the Act into law, you need to take action and force a correction. Watch for it!

For more on the USCCB, don’t miss my post where I reported that they are losing millions of taxpayer dollars under Trump.

 

Note to PayPal donors!  I want to thank all of you who send me donations for my work via PayPal. I very much appreciate your thoughtfulness. However, PayPal is making changes to their terms of service and I’ve decided to opt-out beginning on March 10, 2020.

Pope Gets Japanese Blowback When He Tells Them to Welcome Refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

Editor:  I hope you had a great day giving thanks with loved ones yesterday.

Much to my surprise the post I wrote on the day before Thanksgiving about 88 mayors demanding more refugees went off-the-charts viral, so if you didn’t see it, check it out.  

And, thank you dear readers for continuing to follow RRW and special thanks to the donations from many of you that have made it possible for Refugee Resettlement Watch’s renewed presence on the internet.

 

On a trip to Japan a few days ago Pope Francis learned first hand that Japan steadfastly maintains that it wants to keep its unique language and culture and not become a multiculty polyglot nation as so many European nations have become.

From the New Hampshire Union Leader:

Pope’s message of openness to refugees prompts backlash in Japan

TOKYO – A visit to Japan by Pope Francis and his dream of a nuclear-free world drew largely positive headlines this week in Japan. But when he tried to gently encourage the Japanese to extend a hand of friendship to refugees, the backlash on social media was significant.

Invasion of Europe news: Pope Francis welcomes refugees on the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013 helping to fuel the political and social crisis Italy has experienced ever since. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2013/07/09/pope-lectures-on-lampedusa/

Japan has some of the toughest policies toward refugees and asylum seekers among the world’s richest nations, and a reputation for being relatively closed toward outsiders.

The pope’s effort to preach a more accepting message was not universally accepted.

[….]

The story was one of the most read on the TV Asahi website on Tuesday and Wednesday and tweets with the words “accept refugees” were trending.

But the response seemed more negative than positive.

“Do that first in the Vatican,” tweeted @Ryounagasugi7, a tweet liked by 14,600 people and retweeted 4,700 times.

[….]

“I am sorry. We’ve seen how European countries have failed terribly. Even so, do you still say that? First of all, we are not a country where Christians are dominant. Would you please ask other ‘Christian countries’? Such as America, or America, or America,” tweeted @no_problem666.

Response by a bunch of No Borders activists:  Shut down the refugee-phobia on Twitter!

After seeing the flood of negative comments, a group of volunteers who support asylum seekers detained at a facility in Ushiku north of Tokyo called on Twitter to act.

“Tweets that would inflame refugee-phobia, xenophobia are growing, @TwitterJP should deal with it as its own platform has been used to inflame xenophobia,” they wrote on their account @freeushiku.

More here.

I’m thankful to have RRW’s extensive library available again!  See my Japan archive here and my Pope Francis posts here.

Did You See the Pope’s New Statue? Guilt-Tripping the World Again?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

No, not the one of the poor Italians in need of shelter and food, or the one of homeless veterans living on the streets of any major US city, or even the poor souls escaping the crumbling Communist economy in Venezuela?

It is a statue of migrants arriving with an angel in their midst to be welcomed wherever they decide has the best deal to supply their needs.

Migrants arrive with angels. Of course it is a political propaganda stunt!

 

Although the reporter, Erica Evans, at Deseret News gives her story a slight tilt toward the views of US federal resettlement contractors doing their usual spin about how they are driven entirely by their Christian zeal to help the stranger, she throws in some commentary from others who question the wisdom of hauling the third world (at great expense to taxpayers) to the first world every time there is a conflict somewhere on the globe.

The pope is making a statement about immigration with this new statue at the Vatican

SALT LAKE CITY — Pope Francis has repeatedly warned against exclusivist immigration policies and called for broader options for migrants and refugees to enter destination countries safely and legally at a time in which refugees are fleeing violent and unstable countries around the globe.

On Sunday, the Pope unveiled a new statue at the Vatican depicting 140 migrants and refugees traveling on a boat. He counseled people of faith to respond to displaced people with four words: “welcome, protect, promote and integrate,” The New York Times reported.

Mark Tooley https://theird.org/person/mark-tooley/

The pope’s outspoken views on refugees and immigration policies have raised questions about the role religious leaders play in debates about immigration.

Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, says religious leaders are too narrowly focused on humanitarian needs and fail to consider nations’ rights and interests.

“My critique of them is that sometimes they implicitly conflate the purposes and mandate of the church with the purposes and mandate of the state.” said Tooley. “The church, of course, is called to offer aid and hospitality to all people in need, but the secular state’s primary purpose is to look after the interest of the nation and people over which it has jurisdiction.”

Tooley said there is nothing wrong with the statue if it is meant as a call for concern for people fleeing violence, but “inevitably” some will use it for political reasons to demand higher levels of immigration and refugee resettlement. [Exactly!—-ed]

[….]

The presence of the sculpture in St. Peter’s Square is meant to commemorate the 105th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, according to Vatican News. In his message for the occasion, Pope Francis said that extreme individualism is being reinforced by the media in rich countries and resulting in the “globalization of indifference” towards migrants, refugees and other people in need.

Tooley, however, doesn’t think that prioritizing national interest when it comes to immigration is a sign of “indifference.” He said religious people might think it’s selfish for a government to look after its own citizens first, but that is not the case.

“That’s not selfish,” Tooley said. “That’s similar to parents looking after their own children. Hopefully they treat other people’s children well, but they shouldn’t prioritize other people’s children over their own.”

According to Tooley, the pope and other Christians advocating for more lenient immigration laws should acknowledge that there are limits to the number of people who can be resettled in a given country, in addition to economic and security risks to be considered.

[….]

Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services are among the organizations listed as U.S. resettlement partners by the United Nations.

Here it is! Finally 29 paragraphs into the story (how many uninformed readers got this far)?  These phony-baloney non-profit Christian groups get their funds from us—the taxpayers—not from their parishioners and church members!

Soerens [Matthew Soerens, the U.S. director of church mobilization for World Relief], said his organization, World Relief, has closed resettlement offices in seven cities, including in Boise, Idaho, Nashville, Tennessee, and Miami, Florida. He said the closures were a result of fewer refugees and a reduction in government funding.

Continue reading, there is a lot here.

In case you missed it, see how much payola the US Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration Fund lost in just the first full year of the Trump Administration, here. 

It is no wonder they are squawking!

One day I hope to see the mainstream media shut up on the ‘welcome the stranger’ BS and tell the full story about how much of your money is doled out from the US Treasury to these supposed ‘religious charities’ (all hardcore Leftwing political agitation groups!) so they can brag about their compassion.

I can dream!

Summer of Discontent for US Catholic Bishops! Why? Trump Not Listening to Them!

~ Ann Corcoran

The filthy rich US Conference of Catholic Bishops is at odds with the Trump Administration over immigration policy—so what else is new!

“America welcomes refugees; that is who we are, that is what we do.” Vasquez chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration is telling Trump.

Here is a long (too long) recitation of everything the President is doing to annoy Catholic Bishops, but one thing is missing and that is that the Trump Administration has reduced by tens of millions the boodle the Bishops get from the US Treasury!

Could that be the real reason they are so hot under the collar?

From America magazine,

Trump administration at odds with Catholic leaders on immigration policies

This has been the summer of discontent for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on U.S. immigration policy. Since June the U.S. bishops have released more than 10 statements reflecting their displeasure with a broad range of White House decisions on immigration.

The U.S.C.C.B. has criticized the administration’s treatment of migrant detainees, especially children, challenging policy that has resulted in the separation of families and led to inhumane conditions at detention sites. It has resisted White House plans to rewrite asylum rules and to allow temporary protected status for vulnerable migrant communities to expire, and it has deplored proposed cuts to foreign aid that bishops say will only drive more migrants to the U.S. border.

[….]

On Sept. 13 the U.S.C.C.B. weighed in on immigration again, this time on plans that critics charge will mean the end of the United States as a safe haven for the world’s refugees.

So get this, large numbers of Catholics are supporting the President!

Ethics professor Heyer with the Pope. Catholics who support Trump are “ignoring their bishops.”

Resistance to the president’s immigration policies is high when measured among all Catholics, but white Catholics offered Trump 56 percent of their vote in 2016 and a majority of white Catholics—51 percent—still maintain a favorable opinion of the president—many among them presumably support White House immigration proposals. Those who do are not only ignoring their bishops, said Kristin Heyer, discussing the subject via email, they are endorsing positions at sharp odds with church teaching on migration and its call to protect the lives and the human dignity of migrating people.

Ms. Heyer is a professor of theological ethics at Boston College.

“The Catholic social tradition recognizes the right of sovereign nations to control their borders,” Ms. Heyer said, “but the right is not understood to be absolute. In the case of blatant human rights violations, the right to state sovereignty is relativized by the tradition’s primary commitment to protecting human dignity.”

[….]

“As the Catholic Church prepares to celebrate the World Day of Migrants and Refugees” on Sept. 29, “we are reminded of Pope Francis urging us all to work for a ‘globalization of solidarity’ with refugees, not a globalization of ‘indifference,’” the bishops said.

It is long, so you can read the rest yourself by clicking here.  Catholics should definitely read it so you know the entire litany of complaints the Bishops have with the Prez.

Absent from the article is any mention of the fact that the USCCB is one of the largest ‘non-profit’ recipients of taxpayer dollars going to what they call their “migration program.”

Gee, I wonder how the humanitarians are managing with a budgetary loss of $24 million in one year!

From a recent financial statement (page 10).  This is only the federal tax dollars the USCCB receives for its migration services.  They receive many millions more for myriad programs they run for the federal government.

Holy moly! Their revenue received from the US Treasury dropped by nearly a third in one year ($24 million went poof!).

 

The disingenuous Leftwing media is never going to mention that there is TAXPAYER funded payola involved in the USCCB’s  supposed ‘Christian charity,’ so I guess I will just have to keep repeating myself!