Pope Francis on Sunday welcomes 5,000 migrant worshipers at a special mass at St. Peter’s to mark the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, urging them to treasure their “culture and precious values.
“Your presence here at this square is a sign of hope in God. Don’t let yourselves be stripped of this hope and joy of living,” he says at the close of his weekly Angelus prayer.
Francis has repeatedly called on European states to welcome people fleeing war and misery amid the Continent’s worst migrant crisis since World War II.
After the prayer, the pope hails “with great affection the ethnic communities present” in the Vatican City and “the people who help and welcome” the migrants.
“Dear migrants and refugees, each of you carries a story, a culture and precious values,” Francis says.
“Alas, many of you have experienced misery, oppression and fear.”
— AFP
Migrants gather in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican to follow Pope Francis’s Angelus prayer, part of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on January 17, 2016. (AFP/Filippo Monteforte)
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