As spring turns into summer, Canada is about to face a test of its generosity.

For the first time, Canada is seeing more people claim refugee status after hopping the U.S. border on back roads than make a claim at regular, official ports of entry. At the same time the total number of refugee claims has more than doubled in just one year.

MONTREAL – When a Haitian mother and her two young children crossed into Canada by taxi, "police officers said that I was going to be arrested because I had just done something illegal."

OTTAWA – As waves of asylum seekers continue to cross illegally into Canada from Donald Trump’s America, Catholic dioceses in Quebec and eastern Ontario are mobilizing to provide the border crossers with food, shelter and pastoral support.

DUBLIN, Ireland – Ireland's Catholic bishops have praised a Supreme Court decision in the country that will allow asylum seekers to find work while their status is being decided.

While some church and other groups continue to call for suspension of the Safe Third Country agreement with the United States, the Catholic-sponsored Center for Migration Studies in New York says the Trump administration is supporting the status quo because it has not yet made any substantial change to the U.S. asylum system.

FRONTERA COMALAPA, Mexico – In the early 1980s, parishioners at the Santo Nino de Atocha parish in this town on the Mexico-Guatemala border opened their church and homes to refugees fleeing civil war in Guatemala. Three decades later, they're preparing for another influx of asylum seekers – this time from countries farther south as Central Americans seek safety from the gang violence gripping El Salvador and Honduras.

As Canadians debate how we should respond to a surge in asylum seekers crossing southern borders, Catholics should reflect on recent words from Pope Francis about what he calls the scandal of hypocrisy.

CANBERRA – The Australian government's proposed permanent ban on visas for refugees and asylum seekers who have recently arrived by boat drew strong criticism from a bishop who is a former refugee himself.