Pope on refugee policy: human rights instead of walls

On the second day of his visit to Greece, Pope Francis denounced the handling of migrants with clear words. In Athens he stressed the importance of looking at the outsiders in society.

The Catholic community in Greece is small: not even three percent of the eleven million inhabitants are Catholic. Nevertheless, in the afternoon, two and a half thousand believers celebrated the final service of his trip to Greece with Pope Francis in Athens.

Attention to outsiders

In his sermon, Francis once again made it clear how important it is to him to repeatedly draw attention to outsiders and people forgotten by society: Normally, when you want to make an important announcement, you go to beautiful places. But God turn his gaze to where sadness and loneliness reigned, said the Pope.

Political standstill on migration

Against this background, it was not surprising that Francis visited the refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos this time too. There he thanked the many volunteers and the Greek population in the morning for their commitment and support. But he regretted the political stalemate that existed on the issue of migration in the international community.

Dealing with refugees

It is bitter that there are still people in Europe who pretend that this problem is none of their business. Without specifically naming individual states, he called for human rights to be respected when dealing with migrants and refugees instead of building walls.

Following the mass, another meeting with the Orthodox Archbishop of Athens and Greece, Hieronymos II, was on the program before returning to Rome on Monday morning.