From Barriers to Windows: Pope Francis sends powerful message to change the way the world sees migration

Pope Francis has addressed the need for a fundamental change in how the world views migration. 

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Highlights

By Abigail James
9/10/2020 (3 years ago)

Published in Living Faith

Keywords: Pope Francis, Migration, Immigration, Europe, Peace, Humanity

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In an address, on September 10, to supporters of a new project, Snapshots From the Borders, Pope Francis explained it was "vital to change the way we see and talk about migration: it is about putting people, faces, stories at the center."

According to Catholic News Agency, Pope praised the new project as an example of the "culture encounter which leads to a new humanism."

"The inhabitants of the cities and frontier territories -- the societies, communities, churches -- are called to be the first actors in this turning point, thanks to the continuous opportunities of encounter that history offers them," shared the pope. "Borders, long considered as barriers of division, can instead become 'windows,' spaces of mutual knowledge, of mutual enrichment, of communion in diversity; they can become places where models are experimented with to overcome the difficulties that the new arrivals bring for the indigenous communities."

Snapshots From The Borders is a three-year long project ran by 35 groups and co-funded by the European Union. The project aims to establish a sort of network between cities at the borders of the EU. It hopes to contribute to a "new European narrative" about migration and promote a "more coherent human rights-based approach" to the issue," according to the project's website, www.snapshotsfromtheborders.eu.

The Pope's meaningful message comes just two days after a devastating fire ran through Europe's largest refugee camp, leaving 13,000 people without shelter. 

"Faced with these challenges, it seems clear that concrete solidarity and shared responsibility are indispensable, both at a national and international level," he expressed.