Pope Francis accepts Syrian immigrants to Vatican

Migrant crisis: Pope returns from Greece with 12 migrants

MYTILENE, Greece — Pope Francis made an emotional visit into the heart of Europe’s migrant crisis on Saturday and took 12 Muslim refugees from Syria, including six children, with him back to Rome aboard the papal plane.

Pope Francis is amazing He accepted Syrian refugees into the Vatican, including Muslims,

The action punctuated the Pope’s pleas for sympathy to the crisis confronting the refugees just as European attitudes are hardening against them.

Those taken to Rome were three families — two from Damascus and one from Deir al-Zour — whose homes had been bombed in the Syrian war, the Vatican said in a statement as the pope departed the Greek island of Lesbos, where he had visited the Moria refugee camp. “The pope has desired to make a gesture of welcome regarding refugees,” the statement said.

The announcement capped a brief trip by the pope to Greece that again placed the plight of migrants at the center of his papacy.

“We have come to call the attention of the world to this grave humanitarian crisis and to plead for its resolution,” Francis said during a lunchtime visit to the Moria camp, where leaders of Eastern Orthodox Christian churches joined him.

Advertisement

“As people of faith, we wish to join our voices to speak out on your behalf,” Francis continued. “We hope that the world will heed these scenes of tragic and indeed desperate need, and respond in a way worthy of our common humanity.”

While the announcement had the appearance of a surprise, Francis told reporters on the plane ride home that the relocation of the refugees had involved planning and paperwork by the governments of the Vatican, Italy and Greece. In Rome, the Catholic charitable association Sant’Egidio will help care for the families and try to find them work.

The popeid not explain how the families had been chosen, but said: “They are guests of the Vatican.”

Francis also showed reporters two drawings given to him by children in the Moria camp. One showed children drowning in the sea. The other showed the sun crying.

“The children have these things in their minds, and it will take time before these memories go away,” the pope said. “If the sun is able to cry, so can we. A tear will do us good.”

While papal visits to refugee camps are not new, religious scholars said Francis’ rescue of the 12 Syrians sent an important signal that reflected his long history of affinity with the world’s most vulnerable, dating to his roots as a Jesuit priest in Argentina.

“Welcoming the stranger is the heart of the Christian message,” said Charles Camosy, a professor of Christian ethics at Fordham University in New York. While Francis is often seen as a progressive pope, Mr. Camosy said, he also is “pushing a more traditional understanding of what Christianity is all about.”

Francis’ first papal trip in 2013 was to the Italian island of Lampedusa, to call attention to the refugees who were arriving there from Libya — or drowning before they reached shore. During his February visit to Mexico, Francis prayed beneath a large cross erected in Ciudad Juárez, just footsteps from the border with the United States, and then celebrated Mass nearby, where he spoke about immigrants.

Who are the 12 Syrians?

One family is made up of two engineers, Hasan and Nour, and their two-year-old son. They came from Damascus and lived in Zabadani, an area near the Lebanese border that has been besieged by regime forces and heavily bombed. They fled to Turkey and took a boat to the Lesbos.

Ramy, a teacher, and Suhila, a tailor, are both in their 50s and come from Deir al-Zour, near the Iraqi border - a city attacked by so-called Islamic State. The couple arrived in Greece with their three children in February via Turkey.

Osama and Wafa come from the Damascus suburb of Zamalka. Wafa says the youngest of their two children still wakes up every night - and even stopped speaking for a time.

All had their homes destroyed by bombing, according to the Vatican.