Rome’s refugee center continues to serve migrants, as Europe’s Episcopal churches work more broadly ‘to welcome the stranger’

[Episcopal News Service] Joel Nafuma, the center’s namesake, fled the military dictatorship of Idi Amin, who ruled Uganda for a decade; Amin’s brutal regime killed an estimated 300,000 civilians. During this time, Italy adopted a generous and sometimes unregulated “open door” policy toward African migrants who’d been forcibly displaced, and many of them made their way to St. Paul’s Within the Walls because they already had connections with the Anglican churches at home.

Today, migrants and the perilous journeys they make in search of security continue to make headlines worldwide. NGO rescue ships have resumed their life-saving missions in the Mediterranean, after last month Italy refused to allow migrants to leave ships. Four migrants died on Dec. 14 when their boat capsized in the English Channel. They’d set off from France and were trying to reach Britain. At least another 500 migrants have made similar journeys in recent days, Reuters reported.