September 2, 2015

Chris McDonnell, UK

On the move

(Comments welcome here)

chris@mcdonnell83.freeserve.co.uk

Across the continent of Europe , people are on the move. Their country of origin extends from the North African coast into sub-Saharan Africa and across into the war- torn areas of the Middle East .

Many start out but do not make landfall in Europe, losing their lives in ill-equipped boats, crammed to the gunnels by the people-smugglers whose sole concern is to make money out of their helpless plight.

Some are fortunate and get picked up at sea when their own craft become water logged and sink. Others make landfall and provide a huge logistical problem for the places where they beach. And so many others drown in an unforgiving sea.

Once ashore their problems are far from over. We have seen many pictures on the television news and in the press of confrontation with police and armed forces, especially in the region of the Channel ports where they attempt to gain access to the

via large transport vehicles or the Eurostar train.

And we have become neutralised by the repeated scenes of fellow human beings struggling to survive.

So what do we do, how to we solve this seemingly endless tide of humanity so desperate for help that they are willing to risk their very lives seeking it?

Until such time as we solve the basic reasons for their exodus from their homeland, we will be faced with the struggle to care for those that make it to our shores.

If ever the European Union had a cause to be united, this is surely a clear instance calling for co-operative action. As in so many other matters since then, Francis, early in his occupancy of the See of Peter, led by example. In July 2013, he went to the island of Lampedusa to celebrate mass at the dockside of this small Mediterranean island off the southern toe of Italy that had become, for so many, their European landfall after a perilous sea crossing. He prayed for migrants, living and dead, and denounced their traffickers.

These people are not so much flotsam that can be cast on the sea with little concern. It is not a small matter of two or three being lost overboard, but of countless hundreds who never make it, men, women and their young children whose lives are lost in terrible circumstances.

The Synod of the Family is due to open on October 4^th in Rome . There will be much discussion, argument and attempted clarification on issues relating to family life. Yet the issues go beyond the nuclear family and the issues of if and when, how and why. Back in the 80s the Spinners, a Merseyside folk group, recorded a song, The Family of Man.

The family of Man keeps growing
The family of Man keeps sowing
The seeds of a new life every day

I belong to a family, the biggest on the earth
Ten thousand every day are coming to birth
Our name isn't Davis , Hall, Groves , or Jones
It's a name every man should be proud he owns

I've got a sister in Melbourne, a brother in Paris
The whole wide world is dad and mum to me
Wherever you go you'll find my kin
Whatever the creed or the colour of the skin

The miner in the Rhondda , the coolie in Peking
The men across the ocean who plough, reap and spin
They've got a life and others to share it
So let's bridge the oceans and declar

From the North Pole ice to the snow at the other
There is not a man I wouldn't call brother
But there isn't much time, I've had my fill
Of the men of war who intend to kill

Some people say the world's a horrible place
But it's just as good or bad as the human race
Dirt and misery or health and joy
Man can build or can destroy

We are not alone with our turbulence in Europe , for in other parts of our Earth, conflict, famine or drought puts people and their belongings on the road, seeking a better future.

Where do we go from here, how can the Christian people offer sustenance to those whose lives have been disrupted and now seek shelter and safety with us?