Love and loathing greet pope's appeal for parishes to host refugees

 At a recent meeting of Catholic parishioners in the small town of Castelgomberto in northern Italy, a man got up and shouted "My grandfather built that place for priests, not for Muslims".

"It was a pretty stormy meeting," said Father Lucio Mozzo, pastor to six parishes in the area, who was trying to convince residents to allow a family of refugees to move into a disused vicarage in a nearby valley.

In an unprecedented gesture last Sunday, Pope Francis appealed to every Catholic parish, religious community and sanctuary in Europe to take in a family of refugees, saying he would set the example by hosting two families in parishes inside the Vatican..

The Roman Catholic Church's capacity to help refugees in parishes from Sicily to Sweden is huge, but the success of the appeal will depend on how many parishes take action.

There are about 120,000 parishes in Europe, with the largest number - about 27,000 - in Italy. France and Spain have about 20,000 each. Iceland has among the fewest, with six.

The response has so far been mixed.

Official statements from bishops conferences have oozed with optimism. Grass-roots groups have preached a let's-roll-up-the-sleeves attitude, with a number of initiatives already taking shape.

But confrontations in Castelgomberto and elsewhere in Europe have illustrated the difficulties priests may face at the local level as suspicion and xenophobia have reared their heads.

"I think fear is prevailing. It is fomented by what people hear about crime, and they ask questions like 'how do we manage these people? What will they do? How long will they stay?'" Mozzo said in a telephone interview.

Mozzo was not the only Catholic priest who found resistance.

When Catholic monks in the village of Ladce in Western Slovakia proposed housing 30 families of Christian Syrian refugees in an empty monastery building last month, local opposition forced them to retract the offer.

Residents in the predominantly Catholic town of about 2,600 people signed a petition complaining that the building was too close to a school and a kindergarten. Slovak media quoted one resident as saying that "Syrian Christians are not like Slovak Christians".

TEST OF CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM RELATIONS

U.S. to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees: White House

President Barack Obama has directed his administration to prepare to take in at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year, the White House said on Thursday.

It is the first specific commitment the United States has made toward increasing its acceptance of refugees from the war-torn country.

Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the United States has taken in 1,500 refugees, with 300 more expected to be cleared by October.

But refugee advocates and some members of Congress say taking in an additional 10,000 refugees does not go far enough toward addressing the humanitarian crisis triggered by the war, which has prompted a massive refugee influx into Europe.

In a letter distributed to House Democrats and seen by Reuters, Democratic Representative David Cicilline asked Obama to accommodate 65,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016. Religious groups have called for the United States to accept 100,000 Syrian refugees.

European countries have taken in waves of migrants fleeing violence. Germany allowed 20,000 in over the weekend and is preparing for 800,000 this year.

Melanie Nezer, vice president of HIAS, a global refugee advocacy group, said allowing 10,000 more refugees from Syria is not an adequate response to the crisis at hand.

"This is totally within the realm of what the current system on autopilot could do. This is not time for autopilot. This is time to really ramp things up," said Nezer.

The United States is conducting air strikes in Syria as part of its effort to fight against Islamic State. The United States currently admits annually a total of 70,000 refugees from around the world, and is due to increase that total by 5,000 for the fiscal year starting in October.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest would not say whether the 10,000 Syrians would be a part of or in addition to that total.

Earnest said national security was a top concern for admitting Syrians, a country rife with anti-American militants, noting that intensive security screening for refugees could take up to 18 months.

"I do feel confident in telling you that the president will not sign off on a process that cuts corners when it comes to the basic safety and security of the American people and the U.S. homeland," Earnest told reporters.

The additional background checks and processing will require a "significant financial commitment" from Congress, Earnest said.

Congress cannot block the administration from setting limits on the number of refugees it admits from each region. But it can block funding needed for staffing agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services that handle the screening and resettlement procedures.

House Appropriations Committee aides said they had yet to receive a request for more money to accommodate an increase in Syrian refugees and declined to comment on the likelihood of approving such an increase unless it is formally submitted.

Senior Republican Senators Bob Corker and Lindsey Graham have said they are open to the idea of allowing more refugees, as long as they are subjected to security screenings.

Australia To Take 12,000 Refugees

Australia will accept 12,000 refugees from Syria on top of its current humanitarian intake quota, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Wednesday, bowing to pressure from an angry opposition, and extend air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq into Syria.

Abbott had said on Sunday that Australia would allocate more spaces in its 13,750 annual quota to those fleeing violence in Syria, without boosting overall arrivals.

The one-off move to offer refuge to those fleeing the four-year-old civil war in Syria would prioritize members of persecuted minorities, Abbott said.

"Australia remains committed to the international effort to counter Daesh, which threatens stability in Iraq and the Middle East and the security of Australians at home and in our region," he told reporters in Canberra, using an Arabic name for Islamic State.

At least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean seeking refuge in Europe this year and next, the United Nations said on Tuesday, giving estimates that already look conservative. The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR called for more cohesive asylum policies to deal with the growing numbers.

The Royal Australian Air Force is already taking part in the U.S.-led coalition campaign against Islamic State targets in Iraq, but its aerial role in Syria has so far been limited to refueling and intelligence gathering.

The decision to expand air strikes was in response to a formal request from Washington, Abbott said.

"This is not an attempt to build a liberal pluralist market democracy overnight in the Middle East. That's been tried and it didn't magnificently succeed," Abbott said.

"Surely all human beings are entitled to a government which doesn't commit genocide against them."

Australia also committed to directly pay for the support of 240,000 displaced people in countries neighboring Syria and Iraq, Abbott said, at a cost of A$44 million ($31.03 million).

Refugee advocates praised the decision to allow in the displaced Syrians.

"(It) is an important first step and shows to the world that Australia is willing to support those who are in great need," the Refugee Council of Australia said in a statement.

At the same time, the move to wade deeper into the conflict in Syria drew harsh rebukes from Abbott's political opponents.

"At a time when our community is desperate to show compassion to people fleeing war in Syria, Tony Abbott is dropping bombs," opposition Greens Party leader Richard Di Natale told reporters.