In an article for America, Rev. David Hollenbach, S.J., argues that the church can and should provide leadership in responding to the needs of refugees and very poor people who are facing the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis reveals the full force of unjust structures that place them at great risk. It also shows the dangers of political discourse that emphasizes national interests to the exclusion of the world’s most vulnerable people. International responses to the COVID-19 crisis should prioritize greater social inclusion of very poor people and those who have been forcibly displaced. The crisis also indicates that our obligations to the citizens of our own country must not negate our duties to global humanity. He concludes that the church should work to ensure that in the post-crisis future, poor people and refugees have a more just share in the common good than they do today. The article was published as “The Most Endangered Victims of the Covid-19 Crisis: Strategies for Including the Poor and Refugees in the Global Common Good” in the May 25, 2020 print issue of America.
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