Who Is Mary's Mother? Get It Right If You Want To Stay In Canada

Kudos to the Federal Court of Canada for reigning in a particularly zealous Refugee Board adjudicator, Ms. Rose Andrachuk, who wanted to turf a man from China claiming refugee status for being persecuted as a Roman Catholic.

According to today's National Post, "The Federal Court of Canada expressed dismay at the level of knowledge expected from the recent convert, who knew Mary was the mother of Jesus but didn't know Jesus' grandmother's name; and who knew Jesus was baptized by John but didn't know John's mother's name. (The answers are Anne and Elizabeth, respectively.)"

The refugee claimant, Mao Qin Wang, "26, says he turned to religion after his father was seriously injured in an accident and a friendly Catholic said he was praying for him. When his father improved, he started attending his friend's underground church in 2007, he says."

I can appreciate that Ms. Andrachuk, a practicing Roman Catholic, wanted to see if Mr. Wang's claim was sincere, but I'm also pretty sure that underground Catholic churches in China don't offer quality RCIA (catechism for converts) programs. I can think of a few of my Anglican clergy colleagues who might be stumped by the Anne and Elizabeth questions.

Read the whole story here.