Office of Migration

Is the spirit calling you to become involved in refugee sponsorship?

As a Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH) with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon helps parishes and other groups to privately sponsor refugees, offering training and coordination. For more information please contact coordinator Sofia Berumen at (306) 659-5842 or migration [at] saskatoonrcdiocese.com

 "Refugees are not a unique product of our times ... Joseph took Jesus and his mother and fled by night to Egypt because King Herod was searching for the child to destroy him ... "

Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" and the Pontifical Council
for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (1992)
Refugees: A Challenge to Solidarity, no. 1

Refugees

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) recognizes 11.4 million refugees worldwide under its mandate, and an additional 4.6 million Palestinian refugees are under the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Worldwide, 51 million people are internally displaced by conflict or natural disaster and an estimated 12 million people are stateless.

Who is a refugee?    http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c125.html

• For children: Refugee Children Escape from Persecution and War – UNHCR (5MB PDF)

For refugees, there are three durable solutions: (1) voluntary repatriation, (2) local integration in the country of asylum, or (3) resettlement abroad.

Individuals abroad do not apply directly to Canada for resettlement. Government assisted refugees for resettlement are referred to Canada by the UNHCR and other organizations. An additional, unique program to Canada permits private groups (which have signed an agreement with the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) to sponsor eligible refugees from abroad. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon has such an agreement with CIC.

How Private Sponsorship Works

The Diocese of Saskatoon, Office of Migration works with parish communities and other constituent groups to offer training and coordination related to private sponsorship of families living in refugee situations overseas. Migration Office coordinator Sofia Berumen would be pleased to provide more information: (306) 659-5842 or sberumen [at] rcdos.ca

Refugees & the Church         

"Every human being is a child of God! He or she bears the image of Christ! We ourselves need to see, and then to enable others to see, that migrants and refugees do not only represent a problem to be solved, but are brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected and loved. They are an occasion that Providence gives us to help build a more just society, a more perfect democracy, a more united country, a more fraternal world and a more open and evangelical Christian community."  
Pope Francis, from the Vatican, 5 August 2013

• "I was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me..." Canadian Catholic Bishops' Oct. 2015 pastoral letter about refugees: http://www.cccb.ca/site/images/stories/pdf/Pastoral_Letter_Refugees.pdf
• Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), Episcopal Commission for Social Affairs (2006) We are Aliens and Transients Before the Lord our God: Pastoral Letter on Immigration and the Protection of Refugees.
• Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" and the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (1992) Refugees: A Challenge to Solidarity.
• International Catholic Migration Commission
• Jesuit Refugee Service

Wish to make a donation and support the Refugee Sponsorship or Resettlement program?

Please pray that we may continue to support God's marginalized people - For I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Matthew 25: 31-46

More about Immigrating to & Visiting Canada

• Citizenship & Immigration Canada
• Newcomer Information Centre
• Saskatoon Open Door Society
• International Women of Saskatoon
• Global Gathering Place | Many Cultures, One Community
• Saskatchewan Intercultural Association