18 June 2014 | General Audience

POPE FRANCIS: GENERAL AUDIENCE

St. Peter's Square

[…] The day after tomorrow, 20 June, will be the World Day for Refugees, which the international community devotes to those who are forced to leave their country in order to flee conflicts and persecutions. The number of these brother refugees is growing and, in these last days, thousands more have been made to leave their homes in order to save themselves. Millions of families, millions, refugees from many countries and of every religious faith are experiencing in their stories the dramas and wounds that can only with difficulty be healed. Let us make ourselves their neighbours, sharing their fears and their uncertainty and concretely alleviating their suffering. May the Lord sustain the people and institutions that are working with generosity to ensure refugees acceptance and dignity, and to give them reasons to hope. Let us think of how Jesus was a refugee, he had to flee for his life to be saved, with St Joseph and Our Lady, he had to go away to Egypt. He was a refugee. Let us pray to Our Lady, for the pain of refugees, that she be close to these of our brothers and sisters. Let us pray together to Our Lady for our refugee brothers and sisters. [Hail Mary] Mary, mother of refugees, pray for us.[…]