BY ANNABELLE! WHTTPsToNF.
CARDINAL BASIL Hume has again criticised the Government's Asylum and Immigration Act in a speech delivered last week at the launch of a Refugee Council night shelter in London.
In a keynote address to charity workers and MPs, the Cardinal said that the state had "a duty to establish fair and efficient procedures for dealing with asylum applications.
Instead, he claimed, the benefit cuts implemented on the 24 July had left a number of asylum seekers destitute. He called the launch of this night shelter of 50 beds "a grim omen", saying that the Government has "a moral responsibility not only to monitor the situation very carefully, but also to provide financial support to these voluntary organisations that are taking the strain....as a direct consequence of Government policy."
The Cardinal also quoted from a speech made by Rabbi Hugo Gryn shortly before his death which said "how you are to people to whom you owe nothing is a critical signal that we give to our young."
In another speech, delivered at Plater College in Oxford last Saturday the Cardinal warmed to his theme, saying: "It is people who matter. Men and women, children are the proper object of Catholic social teaching."