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Boston Human Rights Center Could Help Take In Syrian Refugees

BOSTON (CBS) -- The refugee crisis in Syria now engulfs a continent. The pictures of the human disaster have been seen worldwide; millions of displaced people are desperate to go almost anywhere.

Making it to the United States would be logistically challenging when compared to many European nations, but Thursday the Pope himself told American lawmakers that they must welcome those in need.

"Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War," Pope Francis told a joint meeting of Congress. "This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions."

The Pope continued: "We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation."

That's the very mission of the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights where some fleeing Syrians could wind up.

The center's director, Dr. Lin Piwowarczyk calls the Syrian crisis "enormous (and) unprecedented."

Housed on the Boston Medical Center campus, Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights helps refugees with everything from finding food to getting a job to learning English.

"We're very much interested in helping survivors of torture and their families that are coming from Syria and other places," Dr. Lin Piwowarczyk said. "Boston has a long history of welcoming immigrants from all over the world. As a port city, (Boston) has been a natural place for people to come to."

Piwowarczyk says the need to respond to this crisis is acute. "They're fleeing because they're hopeless or they face such extreme dangers; it's a major decision to decide to flee," she said. "Initially, people are just interested in being safe."

It's a message in sync with with what the Pope explained to lawmakers in Washington.

"In a word," Pope Francis said, "If we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities."

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