ROME — In preparation for World Refugee Day, Pope Francis declared Wednesday that all of us are “required” to welcome anyone who knocks on our door.
“We are all required to welcome, promote, accompany, and integrate those who knock on our doors,” the pope contended.
Pope Francis has insisted throughout his 11-year pontificate that immigration and the care of migrants are primary concerns for Christians and should not be considered a second-tier issue.
“We often hear it said that, with respect to relativism and the flaws of our present world, the situation of migrants, for example, is a lesser issue,” Francis wrote. “Some Catholics consider it a secondary issue compared to the ‘grave’ bioethical questions.”
“That a politician looking for votes might say such a thing is understandable, but not a Christian, for whom the only proper attitude is to stand in the shoes of those brothers and sisters of ours who risk their lives to offer a future to their children,” he wrote.
“Can we not realize that this is exactly what Jesus demands of us, when he tells us that in welcoming the stranger we welcome him?” he asked.
The pontiff defended his continual insistence on the issue of migration by saying it was not just his pet cause, but a central teaching of the Bible.
Quoting from the Old Testament books of Exodus and Leviticus, Francis said that a failure to welcome strangers is contrary to God’s will.
Good Lord https://t.co/j7ulUF8Mpy
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 15, 2020
Earlier this month, Francis said that modern migrants share many similarities with the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land.
The biblical narrative of Exodus, depicting the Israelites on their way to the promised land, “naturally comes to mind” when thinking of immigrants today,” the pontiff wrote in his , Pope Francis asserts in his message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2024.
“Similar to the Jews in the desert, migrants encounter many obstacles in their path: they are tried by thirst and hunger; they are exhausted by toil and disease; they are tempted by despair,” he added.
Pope Francis made migrants the centerpiece of his Christmas blessing Wednesday, addressing the topic of immigration a remarkable three times in an 865-word message. https://t.co/cavyQu5x30
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 25, 2019
In this way, he wrote, it is possible to see in the migrants of our time “a living image of God’s people on their way to the eternal homeland.”
In 2019, the Vatican’s department for migrants and refugees published the collected teachings of Pope Francis on the issue of immigration, reiterating the pontiff’s appeal for a greater openness to migrants.
The 488-page tome, titled Lights on the Ways of Hope: Pope Francis Teaching on Migrants, Refugees and Human Trafficking, gathered together the pope’s addresses on immigration, underscoring how central this topic has been to his pontificate.
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