Vatican City, Jul 6, 2018 / 04:54 am
At a Mass commemorating the fifth anniversary of his trip to Lampedusa, Pope Francis called on Catholics to speak out in the face of injustice toward migrants.
"The Lord promises refreshment and freedom to all the oppressed of our world, but he needs us to fulfill his promise . . . He needs our voice to protest the injustices committed thanks to the silence, often complicit, of so many," said Pope Francis in his homily at the July 6 Mass for Migrants.
According to Francis, the silence is multifaceted. He spoke of "the silence that thinks 'it has always been done this way'" and "the silence of 'us' as opposed to 'you'" among the "many silences."
"Before the challenges of contemporary movements of migration, the only reasonable response is one of solidarity and mercy," the pope continued, calling for migration policies "concerned for the good of one's own country, while taking into account that of others in an ever more interconnected world."