The Archbishop of Hamburg, Mgr. Stefan Hesse, has launched a public debate on several issues facing today’s society in an extensive article on the portal of the Catholic Church in Germany – katholisch.de. Mgr. Hesse is the spokesperson for the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) on the issue of refugees. Having recalled that the German people had backed Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bold open-door policy for refugees in August 2015, he highlighted that the history of the German society over the past 25 years – with the challenges of reunification, the energy policy and the financial crisis – has made it possible to accept the refugee challenge too: “Germany has managed to provide protection and assistance to over a million people in a very short time”. According to the prelate, “the work of state, federal and local authorities, charities, and Church and civil society organisations has been truly remarkable” in the field of integration. If, on the one hand, many refugees look forward to the day when they will be able to return to their homelands, on the other hand, “for the majority of them, this will not happen soon”. This is why, for Mgr. Hesse, it is important that “everyone living in our country has a real chance to participate in social life”. In other words, “regardless of whether one is a permanent resident or not, two areas are of key importance in this context: education and work”.