U.S. must do more to aid Iraqi refugees, prelates tell Rice

Published: 2007-07-27

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Just back from a trip to the Middle East, a U.S. cardinal and a bishop are pressing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to do more to help Iraqi refugees. Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., urged Rice in a July 26 letter to do more to resettle Iraqi refugees in the United States and to provide additional financial, medical and other types of support for refugees in other countries. "It was clear that the countries we visited are in dire need of additional support from the United States and the international community in order to provide safe haven to the almost 2 million Iraqi refugees in the region," their letter said. Cardinal McCarrick and Bishop DiMarzio, both board members of Catholic Relief Services and both consultants to the bishops' Committee on Migration, recently toured refugee settlements in Turkey, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon with a delegation from the International Catholic Migration Commission and CRS.

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