The Humanitarian Corridors program has always expressly rejected discrimination based on religion in the selection of refugees, and the participating dioceses were aware from the beginning that they would be welcoming non-Catholic refugees.
During the selection process in Ethiopia, the refugees were told about the Catholic identity of Caritas as an institution, and were told that the majority of Caritas social workers, volunteers, and mentor families would be Catholics. In Italy, the host communities were prepared to host people of different faiths, and the information they received before the arrival of beneficiaries always specified their faith preferences.
Of the 121 adult beneficiaries interviewed for this study, 20 were Muslims, 80 Orthodox Christians, and the rest a mix of Catholics, Protestants, and people who identified simply as Christians.
In scenarios where host communities and beneficiaries had to grapple with religious differences, the experiences were largely positive. This kind of diversity, therefore, did not present an obstacle to the integration process.
The communities that took in Muslim refugees had positive experiences of dialogue and interaction between refugees and hosts. One Muslim family was resettled in an apartment made available by a convent of nuns, and living in close proximity with one another fostered positive dialogue about faith and religion, also attended by the volunteers and mentor families:
"It’s wonderful that they are Muslim. It’s Ramadan for them now, and it’s edifying for me to see how seriously they take it."
In another place, a family of Muslim beneficiaries asked the volunteers if they could invite some of their Catholic friends to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption on August 15th, as one of the volunteers recounted:
"The other day, Y. [refugee] called me at ten o’clock at night. He wanted to know what cut of meat he should buy because the guy from A. [city] likes pork!"
The Orthodox refugees belong to the Ethiopian Coptic Church, which only has parishes in large cities in Italy. An added wrinkle is that the Eritrean diaspora is politically divided between supporters and opponents of the current dictator. For this reason, many refugees told me they preferred to attend the local Catholic parish. As one of them put it:
"I cannot go to the Orthodox church […]. On Sunday we go to the Catholic church, and we give thanks. There are differences between the Orthodox and the Catholics. But there is one Lord. I see all his graces. I live in his hands."
The celebration of Orthodox holidays, particularly Easter, is often shared with the host communities.
"All four of them are Orthodox, and they celebrated Easter a week after ours. We went to their house for lunch and brought a dish to share."
Sometimes the local bishop helped provide an Orthodox spiritual presence, as one Caritas social worker described:
"The two Coptic Christians are able to go to Mass because the bishop loaned one of our churches to the Orthodox priest, and he comes to offer Mass there once every two weeks."
Other refugees struggled more with missing their own communities and the lack of a place of worship. One refugee said:
"The religion thing is a bit hard for me to accept, because here […] I don’t have an Orthodox church to go to and it’s somewhat difficult for me. Because when I was down there it was important for me to go. Before God, what you’ve done in the past is not enough; you have to keep doing it in the present. Now I have to make do at home. I pray and that’s all [I can do]."
Finally, for Catholic refugees, their shared faith facilitates their acceptance in a religious community, as one Caritas social worker described:
Religion plays a big role in integration. The Humanitarian Corridors mentor family is Catholic, and the migrants are, too […]. Being Catholic helps them become integrated because they go to Mass.
