I am Sister Anne Curtis, a Sister of Mercy of the Americas and member of the leadership team. The Sisters of Mercy have a commitment to promote peace-making at all levels and we recognize an urgent duty and challenge to stand in solidarity with immigrants. Therefore, we believe that President Bush has a responsibility - a moral obligation to end the war in Iraq and aid the refugees by expediting the processing of refugee applicants and to provide the necessary funding for humanitarian assistance.
On my trip to the Middle East January 11-20 as part of a Catholic Relief Services delegation of Sisters to CRS and Partner’s programming for Iraqi Refugees in the Middle East- we came face to face with the human reality of the consequences of the war in Iraq – millions of Iraqis who have had to flee their homeland in order to live and continue to be in very precarious situations. Not only have they been traumatized by the violence of the war but they now struggle to find the most basic of human necessities – shelter, food, health care, education and a sense of safety and belonging in a foreign land. I sat with Iraqi families in conditions we would be abhorred by – entire families living in a single room, without heat or light; teens unable to complete their education because they have no records from their schools that no longer exist; and systems to process refugees that are woefully overburdened and under resourced.
I felt such a sense of shame and sorrow as a citizen of the United States. One of the Sisters working with refugees said; “We don’t need money we need peace in Iraq. The war is a crime against humanity.”
The nation needs to understand the reality of the millions of Iraqi refugees. The situation facing Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons is one of the most pressing humanitarian crises in the world. UNHCR estimates that the current global population of Iraqi refugees exceeds 4 million around the world, including 1.9 million still inside Iraq, and over 2 million in neighboring Middle Eastern countries.
The Sisters of Mercy have a commitment to promote peace-making at all levels and we recognize an urgent duty and challenge to stand in solidarity with immigrants. Therefore, we believe that President Bush has a responsibility - a moral obligation to end the war in Iraq and aid the refugees by expediting the processing of refugee applicants and to provide the necessary funding for humanitarian assistance.