Yahoo – AFP,
15 Sep 2015
A migrant
smiles as he is greeted by locals after arriving at Hamburg railway
station in
northern Germany, on September 5, 2015 (AFP Photo/Daniel Reinhardt)
|
Vatican
City (AFP) - Pope Francis on Sunday called on every Catholic parish in Europe
to take in a refugee family, saying the Vatican's two parishes would lead by
example.
Calling for
a "concrete gesture" ahead of a Jubilee Year of Mercy starting in
December, the pope urged "every parish, every religious community, every
monastery, every sanctuary in Europe (to) take in a family.
Pope
Francis addresses worshippers
gathered at St. Peter's Square in the
Vatican, on
September 6, 2015 (AFP
Photo/Filippo Monteforte)
|
It's not
just about saying "have courage, be patient", Francis -- who has made
poverty and migration a key theme of his papacy -- told thousands of faithful
gathered in the square.
"Christian
hope is more combative", he said, calling on "Europe's bishops, the
true pastors to back my call in their dioceses."
The Vatican
would lead the way, he said, announcing that its two parishes would take in two
refugee families "in the coming days".
Drawing on
a gospel story in which Jesus heals a deaf and mute man, the Argentinian-born
pontiff said a miracle had also taken place in Europe, where "we have been
healed of the deafness of selfishness and the silence of retreating into
ourselves.
"The
closed couple, the closed family, the closed group, the closed parish, the
closed country, that comes from us, it has nothing to do with God," he stressed.
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