What an amazing visitation...
MORIA, Greece (AP) -- Pope Francis gave Europe a concrete lesson Saturday in welcoming refugees by bringing 12 Syrian Muslims to Italy aboard his charter plane after an emotional visit to the Greek island of Lesbos, which has faced the brunt of Europe's migration crisis.
Refugees on the overwhelmed island fell to their knees and wept at his presence.
The Vatican said Francis wanted to make a "gesture of welcome" at the end of his five-hour visit to Lesbos, where he implored Europe to respond to the migrant crisis on its shores "in a way that is worthy of our common humanity." The Greek island just a few miles from the Turkish coast has seen hundreds of thousands of desperate people land on its beaches and rocks in the last year, fleeing war and poverty at home.
"Today I renew my heartfelt plea for responsibility and solidarity in the face of this tragic situation," Francis said.
[...]
Many refugees wept at Francis' feet as he and the two Orthodox leaders approached them at the Moria refugee detention center, where they greeted 250 people individually. Others chanted "Freedom! Freedom!" as the religious leaders passed by.
Francis bent down as one young girl knelt at his feet, sobbing uncontrollably. Clearly moved, the pope also blessed a man who wailed "Thank you, God. Thank you! Please Father, bless me!" A woman told Francis that her husband was in Germany but that she was stuck with her two sons in Lesbos. - Source
Song for this post here.
. I love his gestures and warmth and his taking in five families total now into Vatican City where they can easily be monitored. I hate however his over simplifications when he then challenges Europe. Joseph, Mary,and Jesus fleeing to Egypt has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to Cologne Germany where 3 to 5 hundred women ( depending on the newspaper ) were molested by immigrants in one New Years night in January. Francis should take in 12 single males from a wahhabi Mosque and then see how that goes before berating others. Europe sees through his over simplifications finally....Paris, Brussels murders and Cologne molestations are what closed Europe. Why isn't Pope Francis trying to get the refugees permanently in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates....affluent and a lot closer to Syria than Europe? Is it because whites can be manipulated by guilt and mideasterners cannot? There it is.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it is a fact of life that many women are molested in cities every night – not just by immigrants. Like Jesus, Pope Francis will never be a crowd pleaser for all because his language is intolerable.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that he chose 12 asylum seekers this morning when we learn from the Gospel reading of the day that: ‘Jesus said to the Twelve, “What about you, do you want to go away too?”’
"Like Jesus, Pope Francis will never be a crowd pleaser for all because his language is intolerable."
DeleteAgree.
bg...lol...can you name cities in which three hundred are molested in one night?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you what I told you in the past....skip bg and use your real name and your posts will be more truthful.
ReplyDeleteThere are many good muslims...one thousand on the NY police force and many in our army fighting wahhabis...a bad sector of Islam and the word I used above for the bad sector.
BB, you know I removed my comment before your latest response. But you chose to respond.
ReplyDeleteSo maybe you might also want to tell me how many Muslims were among the 300 plus molesters you mentioned – if any – and if so, were they part of the ‘bad sector’ you describe as wahhabis?
Any molesters in NY? I wonder how many molestation crimes are reported and unreported in NY each year, or even on New Year’s Eve?
No...when I responded, I had just read the post you then took away while I was finishing. The time 4:27 was when you posted not when you deleted....because after I posted, I was surprised to see yours had vanished.
ReplyDeleteI will not respond to you further. We'll presume that the women lied and were really molested by visiting Amish from Pennsylvania.