Pope: Let’s stop crimes like deaths of migrants in trucks

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is urging people to work together to stop crimes against migrants, including the 71 who perished in a smuggler’s truck on the main Budapest-Vienna highway.

Francis invites faithful in St. Peter’s Square in Rome to pray silently with him for migrants who die “on their terrible journeys.” He also prays that God would “help us to cooperate effectively to impede these crimes, which offend the entire human family.” Francis notes Vienna’s cardinal is in the square.

Four men are being investigated by Hungarian authorities in the human trafficking case.

With Christians in Iraq, Nigeria and elsewhere fleeing persecution among the huge numbers of migrants seeking safety, the pope implores the international community to “do something to put an end to the violence and abuses” of power.

— AP