Pope Francis blasted
hostility towards migrants as he compared their plight to that
of St Paul when he was shipwrecked on Malta during his weekly
general audience on Wednesday.
"All over the world migrant men and women face risky voyages
to escape violence, to escape war, to escape poverty," the head
of the Catholic Church said.
"Just as Paul and his companions experience the indifference,
the hostility of the desert, the rivers, the seas.
"Very often they are not permitted to land in ports. But,
unfortunately, sometimes they also encounter the far worse
hostility of men.
"They are exploited by criminal traffickers.
"Today they are treated like numbers and a threat by some
rulers.
"Today. Sometimes inhospitality throws them back, like a
wave, towards poverty or the dangers from which they have fled.
"We, as Christians, must work together to show migrants the
love of God as revealed by Jesus Christ.
"We can and must testify that there is not only hostility and
indifference, but rather that every person is precious to God
and loved by Him".
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