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Pope Francis greets a young woman as he visits refugees at the government-run camp in Mytilene, Greece. Photo: CNS
By CNS and staff reporters
POPE Francis has greeted refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, saying the world needs to fear them less and help them more.
Lesbos has become a symbol of Europe’s refugee crisis, and yesterday Francis returned after five years to chide world leaders for their “cynical disregard” of the plight of migrants.
“Stop ignoring reality, stop constantly shifting responsibility, stop passing off the issue of migration to others, as if it mattered to no one and was only a pointless burden to be shouldered by somebody else,” Francis pleaded, as he spoke against a backdrop of refugee shelters along the shores of the Aegean Sea.
Over the last decade, hundreds of thousands of refugees escaping violence across the Middle East have passed through Lesbos, many seeking permanent relocation in Europe.
When Francis first visited in April 2016 – and memorably brought 12 refugees to the Vatican – 1.3 million people sought asylum in Europe that year.
“History teaches us that narrow self-interest and nationalism lead to disastrous consequences,” he said during his two-hours on the island.
“I am here once again, to meet you and to assure you of my closeness.
“I am here to see your faces and look into your eyes. Eyes full of fear and expectancy, eyes that have seen violence and poverty, eyes streaked by too many tears.
Francis said the global vaccination campaign and the fight against climate change showed that progress could be made on big global issues.
“All this seems to be terribly absent when it comes to migration,” he said. “Yet human lives, real people, are at stake!”
At the time of his last visit, more than 5000 migrants had died that year at sea as they attempted to cross from mainland Turkey to Greece.
“Let us stop this shipwreck of civilisation,” the Pope urged.
“The Mediterranean, which for millennia has brought different peoples and distant lands together, is now becoming a grim cemetery without tombstones.
“This great basin of water, the cradle of so many civilisations, now looks like a mirror of death.”
“Shake us from an individualism that excludes others, to awaken hearts that are deaf to the needs of our neighbours,” Francis said as he concluded a rousing address meant to stir the consciences of global leaders and Catholics alike.
“I ask every man and woman, all of us, to overcome the paralysis of fear, the indifference that kills, the cynical disregard that nonchalantly condemns to death those on the fringes.”