The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell has warned about the “rhetoric of polarisation” that is “rampant in our society at the moment.”
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s News at One, the archbishop also cautioned about that “significant disinformation” about the nature and scale of impact by asylum seekers and migrants.
“The majority of people who come to our country, the migrants, they're here lawfully. They're here to work. They provide vital input into our public services and businesses.
"I meet them every weekend when I’m out in parishes, they're involved in community in our parishes. And this rhetoric of polarisation is very unhelpful, and especially if I look at it from a Christian point of view, because Christianity has that imperative of welcome and hospitality.”
Archbishop Farrell said there was a challenge for political leaders and church leaders to convey the truth about what was happening and to counter the disinformation which was “unalloyed racism” and “unvarnished xenophobia.”
"Criminal acts by a small number of migrants were being exploited to stoke fears. There had been a significant example of this before Christmas, he said. Many of the attacks that were happening were being perpetrated by our own people.
"Racists and hatemongers were “seizing any opening and opportunity to poison the public discourse” and politicians and the churches had a responsibility to counter that. The church was attempting to do that through social justice in parishes and communities, “because that's part of the mission of the church.”
Archbishop Farrell said he hated to see people having to sleep on the streets as there was no accommodation available for significant numbers of international protection applicants.
“That's a very difficult situation for anybody to find themselves on the streets. And, you know, we are a very wealthy country. But that wealth has been given to us over 50 years membership of the EU, we need to give something back of what we have received.”
"People who embark on anti-migrant protests, in Dublin or elsewhere, needed to know that “when you go down those roads, those your actions have consequences. And those consequences are very serious in terms of the destruction of property and denying the people who are on the streets a home.
"Those people who are on the street today might have had a home if we didn't have these fires. And what are we doing? We're excluding them. We're showing that Ireland is a cold place. It's a harsh place, not the land of the thousand welcomes.”