Pope Francis called for getting rid of prejudice and not treating migrants like strangers, but to providing them with all necessary assistance. He said this in an interview with the delegation of the Fondazione Migrantes on Thursday, November 11, the Italian agency ANSA reports.
“In the light of the Latin American experience, I was able to affirm that ‘immigrants, if they are helped to integrate, are a blessing, a source of enrichment and new gift that encourages a society to grow,” Pope Francis said on Thursday, citing from his encyclical ‘Fratelli tutti’.
He said, “We often see migrants only as 'other' from us, as strangers when in reality migrants are a significant part of 'us,' people close to us - our families, our young students, graduates, unemployed, our entrepreneurs."
He was speaking to some 200 participants in a conference promoted by the ‘Migrantes Foundation’, the pastoral ministry of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) for emigrants, immigrants and migrants. The November 9-12 conference in Rome is discussing the theme, “Italians in Europe and the Christian mission".
The Pope said that migrants are also a blessing for Europe and its Churches. “If integrated, [migrants] can help breathe the air of a diversity that regenerates unity; they can nourish the face of catholicity; they can testify to the apostolicity of the Church; they can generate stories of holiness.” He said the Church in Europe cannot fail to consider the millions of Italian and foreign emigrants who are renewing the faces of cities and countries, nourishing "the dream of a united Europe, capable of recognizing common roots and rejoicing in the diversity that inhabits it.
Pope Francis didn’t mention the latest migration crisis at Poland’s eastern border though.
He directed most of his remarks to the history of Italian migration, recalling his own history as a descendant of Italian immigrants to Argentina. But he said history makes clear that Europe is a common home to many, and he called for Europe to “revitalize its vocation to solidarity and subsidiarity today.”