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14 Jun MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR THE “SECOND HOLY SEE-MEXICO CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION”

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I greet all those taking part in this Second Holy See-Mexico Conference on
International Migration, and wish especially to thank the organizers and presenters.
This meeting is taking place on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the reestablishment
of diplomatic relations between the United Mexican States and the Holy See. It is
thus an opportunity to strengthen and renew the bonds of cooperation and
understanding between us, in order to continue to work jointly on behalf of the needy
and the marginalized in our society.
At this time, when the International Community is engaged in two processes aimed
at the adoption of two global compacts, one on refugees and the other on safe,
orderly and regular migration, I encourage you in your work and your efforts to
ground responsibility for the shared global management of international migration in
the values of justice, solidarity and compassion. This demands a change in mindset:
we must move from considering others as threats to our comfort to valuing them as
persons whose life experience and values can contribute greatly to the enrichment of
our society. For this to happen, our basic approach must be “to encounter the other,
to welcome, to know and to acknowledge him or her” (Homily for the World Day of
Migrants and Refugees, 14 January 2018).
In order to acknowledge and respond to the current migration situation, the
assistance of the entire international community is needed, since its transnational
dimension exceeds the capacities and resources of many States. Such international
cooperation is important at every stage of migration: from departing one’s country
of origin all the way to reaching one’s destination, as well as facilitating reentry and
transit. In each of these countries, migrants are vulnerable, feeling alone and
isolated. The recognition of this fact is vitally important if we wish to give a concrete
and dignified response to this humanitarian challenge.
Finally, I would like to point out that the issue of migration is not simply one of
numbers, but of persons, each with his or her own history, culture, feelings and
aspirations… These persons, our brothers and sisters, need “ongoing protection”,
independently of whatever migrant status they may have. Their fundamental rights
and their dignity need to be protected and defended. Particular concern must be
shown for migrant children and their families, those who are victims of human
trafficking rings, and those displaced due to conflicts, natural disasters and
persecution. All of them hope that we will have the courage to tear down the wall of
“comfortable and silent complicity” that worsens their helplessness; they are waiting
for us to show them concern, compassion and devotion.
I give thanks to God for your work and service, and I encourage you to continue your
efforts to respond to the plea of our brothers and sisters, who ask us to recognize
them as such, to give them an opportunity to live in dignity and peace, and in so
doing, to contribute to the development of peoples. To all I willingly impart my
Apostolic Blessing.

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09 Jun ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO PARTICIPANTS AT THE MEETING FOR EXECUTIVES OF THE MAIN COMPANIES IN THE OIL AND NATURAL GAS SECTORS, AND OTHER ENERGY RELATED BUSINESSES

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[…]
There are also ethical reasons for moving towards global energy transition with a
sense of urgency. As we know, everyone is affected by the climate crisis. Yet the
effects of climate change are not evenly distributed. It is the poor who suffer most
from the ravages of global warming, with increasing disruption in the agricultural
sector, water insecurity, and exposure to severe weather events. Many of those who
can least afford it are already being forced to leave their homes and migrate to other
places that may or may not prove welcoming. Many more will need to do so in the
future. The transition to accessible and clean energy is a duty that we owe towards
millions of our brothers and sisters around the world, poorer countries and
generations yet to come.
[…]

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07 Jun JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO BARI INTRODUCTORY WORDS OF THE POPE AT THE PRAYER MEETING

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[…]
Yet this region so full of light, especially in recent years, has been covered by dark
clouds of war, violence and destruction, instances of occupation and varieties of
fundamentalism, forced migration and neglect. All this has taken place amid the
complicit silence of many. The Middle East has become a land of people who leave
their own lands behind. There is also the danger that the presence of our brothers
and sisters in the faith will disappear, disfiguring the very face of the region. For a
Middle East without Christians would not be the Middle East.
[…]

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06 Jun HOLY MASS FOR MIGRANTS HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

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“You who trample upon the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land… Behold
the days are coming… when I will send a famine on the land… a thirst for hearing the
words of the Lord” (Amos 8:4.11).
Today this warning of the prophet Amos is remarkably timely. How many of the poor
are trampled on in our day! How many of the poor are being brought to ruin! All are
the victims of that culture of waste that has been denounced time and time again.
Among them, I cannot fail to include the migrants and refugees who continue to
knock at the door of nations that enjoy greater prosperity.
Five years ago, during my visit to Lampedusa, recalling the victims lost at sea, I
repeated that timeless appeal to human responsibility: “‘Where is your brother? His
blood cries out to me’, says the Lord. This is not a question directed to others; it is a
question directed to me, to you, to each of us (Homily, 8 July 2013). Sadly, the
response to this appeal, even if at times generous, has not been enough, and we
continue to grieve thousands of deaths.
Today’s Gospel acclamation contains Jesus’ invitation: “Come to me, all who labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). The Lord promises
refreshment and freedom to all the oppressed of our world, but he needs us to fulfil
his promise. He needs our eyes to see the needs of our brothers and sisters. He needs
our hands to offer them help. He needs our voice to protest the injustices committed
thanks to the silence, often complicit, of so many. I should really speak of many
silences: the silence of common sense; the silence that thinks, “it’s always been done
this way”; the silence of “us” as opposed to “you”. Above all, the Lord needs our
hearts to show his merciful love towards the least, the outcast, the abandoned, the
marginalized.
In the Gospel we heard, Matthew tells us of the most important day in his life, the
day Jesus called him. The Evangelist clearly records the Lord’s rebuke to the
Pharisees, so easily given to insidious murmuring: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I
desire mercy, and not sacrifice’” (9:13). It is a finger pointed at the sterile hypocrisy
of those who do not want to “dirty the hands”, like the priest or the Levite in the
parable of the Good Samaritan. This is a temptation powerfully present in our own
day. It takes the form of closing our hearts to those who have the right, just as we
do, to security and dignified living conditions. It builds walls, real or virtual, rather
than bridges.
Before the challenges of contemporary movements of migration, the only reasonable
response is one of solidarity and mercy. A response less concerned with calculations,
than with the need for an equitable distribution of responsibilities, an honest and
sincere assessment of the alternatives and a prudent management. A just policy is
one at the service of the person, of every person involved; a policy that provides for
solutions that can ensure security, respect for the rights and dignity of all; a policy
concerned for the good of one’s own country, while taking into account that of others
in an ever more interconnected world. It is to this world that the young look.
The Psalmist has shown us the right attitude to adopt in conscience before God: “I
have chosen the way of faithfulness, I set your ordinances before me” (Ps 119,30).
A commitment to faithfulness and right judgement that all of us hope to pursue
together with government leaders in our world and all people of good will. For this
reason, we are following closely the efforts of the international community to respond
to the challenges posed by today’s movements of migration by wisely combining
solidarity and subsidiarity, and by identifying both resources and responsibilities.
I would like to close with a few words in Spanish, directed particularly to the faithful
who have come from Spain.
I wanted to celebrate the fifth anniversary of my visit to Lampedusa with you, who
represent rescuers and those rescued on the Mediterranean Sea. I thank the rescuers
for embodying in our day the parable of the Good Samaritan, who stopped to save
the life of the poor man beaten by bandits. He didn’t ask where he was from, his
reasons for travelling or his documents… he simply decided to care for him and save
his life. To those rescued I reiterate my solidarity and encouragement, since I am
well aware of the tragic circumstances that you are fleeing. I ask you to keep being
witnesses of hope in a world increasingly concerned about the present, with little
vision for the future and averse to sharing. With respect for the culture and laws of
the country that receives you, may you work out together the path of integration.
I ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds and to stir our hearts to overcome all fear
and anxiety, and to make us docile instruments of the Father’s merciful love, ready
to offer our lives for our brothers and sisters, as the Lord Jesus did for each of us.

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05 Jun MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO HIS HOLINESS BARTHOLOMEW I ON THE OCCASION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM “TOWARD A GREENER ATTICA: PRESERVING THE PLANET AND PROTECTING ITS PEOPLE”

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[…]
I recall vividly my visit to Lesvos, together with Your Holiness and His Beatitude
Hieronymos II, to express our common concern for the plight of the migrants and
refugees there. While enchanted by the scenery of the blue sky and sea, I was struck
by the thought that such a beautiful sea had become a tomb for men, women and
children who had for the most part sought only to escape inhumane conditions in
their own homelands. There I was able to witness for myself the generosity of the
Greek people, so richly imbued with human and Christian values, and their efforts,
despite the effects of their own economic crisis, to comfort those who, dispossessed
of all material goods, had made their way to their shores.
The dramatic contradictions I experienced during my visit help us to understand the
importance of the present symposium’s theme. It is not just the homes of vulnerable
people around the world that are crumbling, as can be seen in the world’s growing
exodus of climate migrants and environmental refugees. As I sought to point out in
my Encyclical Laudato Si’, we may well be condemning future generations to a
common home left in ruins. Today we must honestly ask ourselves a basic question:
“What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who
are now growing up?” (ibid., 160). In the wake of the ecological crisis we ought to
undertake a serious examination of conscience regarding the protection of the planet
entrusted to our care (cf. Gen2:15). […]

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01 Jun POPE FRANCIS ANGELUS

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After the Angelus, Pope Francis added:
[…] The situation in Syria is still grave, in particular in the province of Daraa, where
the military actions of recent days have also struck schools and hospitals and have
caused thousands of newly displaced people. I renew, along with my prayer, my
appeal that the population, already tried for years, may be saved from further
suffering. […]

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28 May ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY THE CENTESIMUS ANNUS – PRO PONTIFICE FOUNDATION

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[…]
The current difficulties and crises within the global economic system have an
undeniable ethical dimension: they are related to a mentality of egoism and exclusion
that has effectively created a culture of waste blind to the human dignity of the most
vulnerable. We see this in the growing “globalization of indifference” before obvious
moral challenges confronting our human family. I think especially of the manifold
obstacles to the integral human development of so many of our brothers and sisters,
not only in materially poorer countries but increasingly amid the opulence of the
developed world. I think too of the urgent ethical issues associated with global
movements of migration.
[…]

Archive

17 May ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR THE PRESENTATION OF CREDENTIAL LETTERS BY THE AMBASSADORS OF TANZANIA, LESOTHO, PAKISTAN, MONGOLIA, DENMARK, ETHIOPIA AND FINLAND ACCREDITED TO THE HOLY SEE

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[…]
Among the most pressing of the humanitarian issues facing the international
community at present is the need to welcome, protect, promote and integrate all
those fleeing from war and hunger, or forced by discrimination, persecution, poverty
and environmental degradation to leave their homelands. As I had occasion to
reiterate in my Message for this year’s World Day of Peace, this problem has an
intrinsically ethical dimension that transcends national borders and narrow
conceptions of security and self-interest. Notwithstanding the complexity and
delicacy of the political and social issues involved, individual nations and the
international community are called to contribute as best they can to the work of
pacification and reconciliation through decisions and policies marked above all by
compassion, foresight and courage. […]

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09 May MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS ON THE OCCASION OF THE 101st GERMAN CATHOLIC CONVENTION (“KATHOLIKENTAG”)

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Dear brothers and sisters,
I cordially greet all of you on the occasion of the 101th Katholikentag taking place in
Münster, and I am glad so many of you have come. Your participation is a clear sign
of how much you care about the motto of this Katholikentag, “Search for peace”.
This word is taken from Psalm 34: “Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and
pursue it”. It is an imperative and extremely urgent request for help. Today there is
no more important topic in the public debate on religion than the problem of
fanaticism and propensity to violence. We observe it in the family sphere, in the
workplace, in associations, in our neighbourhoods, in regions and in nations:
wherever man as such is not considered a gift from God there is disagreement,
resentment and hatred. I am deeply concerned about people, especially children and
young people, who are forced to flee because of war and violence in their country, to
save their lives. They knock on our doors asking for help and hospitality. In their eyes
we see the nostalgia for peace.
[…]

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05 May VIDEO MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON MODERN SLAVERY

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Dear brothers and sisters:
I have welcomed the invitation to send a greeting to you, participants in this Forum
on modern forms of slavery, “Old problems in the new world”, organized by the
Orthodox Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, guided by the beloved Metropolitan Tarasios
, and by the Orthodox Patriarchate Athenagoras Institute of Berkeley in California
with the patronage of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. First of all, I express my heartfelt
gratitude to the Ecumenical Patriarch, His Holiness Bartholomew I, and to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, His Grace Justin Welby, who last year inaugurated this
Forum. It comforts me to know that we share the same concern for the victims of
modern slavery.
Slavery is not something from other times. It is a practice that has deep roots and
continues to manifest itself today and in many different ways: trafficking of human
beings, exploitation of work through debt, exploitation of children, sexual exploitation
and forced domestic work are some of the many forms. Each one is as serious and
inhuman as the others. Despite the lack of information available to us from some
regions of the world, the figures are dramatically high and, most likely,
underestimated. According to some recent statistics, there would be more than 40
million people, men, but especially women and children, who suffer as a result of
slavery. Just to give us an idea, imagine that if they lived in a single city, it would be
the largest megalopolis on our planet and would have, more or less, four times the
population of the entire urban area of Buenos Aires and Greater Buenos Aires.
Faced with this tragic reality, no one can wash their hands of it without being, in
some way, an accomplice to this crime against humanity. A first task to be imposed
is to put into effect a strategy for ensuring greater awareness of the subject, breaking
the veil of indifference that seems to cover the fate of this portion of humanity that
suffers, that is suffering. It seems that many do not want to understand the extent
of the problem. There are some who, directly involved in criminal organizations, do
not want it to be talked about, simply because they earn high profits as a result of
the new forms of slavery. There are also some who, despite knowing about the
problem, do not want to talk because they are there where the “chain of
consumption” ends, as a consumer of the “services” offered by men, women and
children who have been turned into slaves. We can not become distracted: we are all
called to leave behind any form of hypocrisy, facing the reality that we are part of
the problem. The problem is not in the opposite lane: it involves us. We are not
permitted to look elsewhere and declare our ignorance or our innocence.
A second great task is to act in favour of those who have been turned into slaves: to
defend their rights, and to prevent the corrupt and criminals from escaping justice
and having the final word on the exploited. It is not enough for some states and
International Organizations to adopt a particularly harsh policy in order to punish the
exploitation of human beings, if then the causes, the deepest roots of the problem,
are not addressed. When countries suffer extreme poverty, violence and corruption,
neither the economy, nor the legislative framework nor the basic infrastructures are
effective; they fail to guarantee security or assets or essential rights. In this way, it
is easier for the perpetrators of these crimes to continue acting with total impunity.
In addition, there is a sociological fact: organized crime and the illegal trafficking of
human beings choose their victims among people who today have little means of
subsistence and even less hope for the future. To be clearer: among the poorest,
among the most neglected, the most discarded. The basic response lies in creating
opportunities for integral human development, starting with a quality education: this
is the key point, quality education from early childhood, to continue generating new
opportunities for growth through employment. Education and employment.
This immense task, which requires courage, patience and perseverance, demands a
joint and global effort on the part of the different actors that make up society. The
Churches must also play a role task in this. While individuals and groups speculate
shamefully on slavery, we Christians, all together, are called to develop more and
more collaboration, to overcome all kinds of inequality, all kinds of discrimination,
which are precisely what makes it possible for a man to make another man a slave.
A common commitment to facing this challenge will be a valuable aid for the
construction of a renewed society oriented towards freedom, justice and peace.
I wish this Forum every success, and I ask the Lord to bless you and to bless your
work. And, please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.