François calls to awaken consciences in the face of the plight of immigrants

Vatican News

After hearing the testimonies of four young immigrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, the Pope said he was deeply moved, explaining that his affection “Beauty of Truth”. Quote these words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I declare your praise: what I hide from the wise and the learned, I have revealed to the little ones.”

Then the Bishop of Rome quoted Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “You are no longer strangers or passing people, you are citizens of the saints, you are members of the family of God.” (the ring 2, 19). This word expresses “The prophecy of the Church, a community that embodies God’s dream with all human limits”Pope explained.

Defuse hatred by walking the path of brotherhood

“God dreams too, like you Mary, who comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who described you as ‘full of dreams’. Like you God dreams of a peaceful world in which his children live brothers and sisters”, François reassured a Congolese woman who had just given her testimony. “We are not numbers, they should be classified as individuals. We are ‘brothers’, ‘friends’, ‘believers’, ‘close’ to each other.Francois, the son of Italian immigrants who came to try their luck in Argentina in the 1920s, insisted.

When you, McCollins, from Cameroon say that you have been ‘hurt by hate’ during your lifetime, you are reminding us that hate has also contaminated our relations among Christians.Pope commented. “We are on the path from conflict to company. In this long road of ups and downs, we must fear not our differences, but rather our fear of our closeness and our own prejudices that prevent us from meeting and truly walking together.”

Referring to the wound of the island of Cyprus and the parapet very close to this church, Francis reiterated that “Lockdowns and prejudices rebuild this wall of separation that Christ broke, the wall of hostility”. “The Lord Jesus comes to meet us with the face of a brother marginalized and rejected. With the face of an immigrant despised, rejected, imprisoned”, but also for the immigrant “Who travels toward something, toward hope, toward a more humane coexistence.”, explained the pope, once again deplored “Culture of indifference” which indulges a lot.

A dream of a reconciled world

“God speaks to us through your dreams. He also calls us not to succumb to a divided world, a divided Christian society, but to walk through history drawn by God’s dream: a humanity without separatist walls, free from enmity, not with strangers, but only with citizens. Different Of course, we are proud of our privacy, which is a gift from God, but it reconciles our fellow citizens.” The bishop of Rome insisted.

«May this island, marked by a painful division, become a laboratory of fraternity.”Asked the Pope, reminding of this “Actual recognition of the dignity of every human being” And “Trust in opening up to God, the Father of all” Two complementary and indispensable conditions for building a harmonious society. Under these circumstances, it is possible for a dream to turn into a daily journey, consisting of concrete steps to move from conflict to communion, from hate to love, Francois confirmed.

The Pope’s cry against indifference

Seriously the Pope left his text by invoking the memory of the many migrants who had disappeared along the way, especially those who drowned in the Mediterranean, a sea that became “Great Cemetery”.

Again, referring to the slave markets, the horror of which is shown in documentaries, compare with those oppressed under the Hitler and Stalin regimes. He also expressed his anger at the installation of barbed wire on the borders to prevent the arrival of refugees. He firmly said that these people flee from hatred but find themselves in the face of other forms of hatred.

“May the Lord awaken the consciences of all of us! We cannot be silent and look elsewhere!”Francois urged him. Forced migration is not a tourist habit., attacked the Pope, once again denouncing the indifference of the West.

He also denounced a “Global Slavery” which many are accustomed to. “The way you get used to it is a very dangerous disease.”, the pope thundered, also mourning the humiliation suffered by those who were expelled at the end of often ruinous journeys.