Refugees welcome along St Columban pilgrim route

Fr Jim celebrates Mass in Austria

Fr Jim Fleming is a Columban priest, based in Birmingham, who works with asylum seekers. He recently took part in a 'Pilgrimage in the Footsteps of Saint Columban' which travelled across Europe to Bobbio in Italy, where Columban died in 615. 2015 is the 1,400th anniversary of the Irish saint's death.

Travelling through France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy on our way to Bobbio, I was surprised to see how so many Christian communities and parishes are already reaching out to migrants in their own way. For example, on a tour of a Benedictine monastery called Klostar Mehrerau in Bregenz (originally an abbey foundation of Columban) I asked the monk guide what their response was to Pope Francis' call to all Catholics would be - only to be told that they were already housing 63 families of asylum seekers in their former hospital building near their enclosure. Then he added that the Vatican probably has no idea of what Catholics are already doing for refugees across Europe.

Last weekend we visited the village of Coli, which is approximately seven kms from Bobbio where we had been staying. Coli is a tiny village of less than 500 residents in the hills of Lombardy. It is also where the walk begins to the cave in which Columban died.

We Columban pilgrims went there and to our great surprise found there a 47 bed hostel for asylum seekers, mainly from Bangladesh. On speaking with those who run the hostel, they said that Italian government policy ensures that every local authority in the country, irrespective of how remote from cities, is expected to host asylum seekers. Four people run the hostel - two in charge of catering, one social worker, one case worker. The ratio of one government employee to every ten asylum seekers seems to be the norm in Italy.

Is there any reason why every local authority in England and Wales cannot, according to their budgetary capacity, cater for migrants flooding into Europe at this time. Lobbying for this by Columbans and partners may be a way forward to addressing the current refugee crisis in Europe.