Pope Francis lamented the “closed doors” for migrants this Sunday, during the homily he presided over more than 50,000 people in Budapest’s Kossuth Lajos Square.
On his last day of his visit to Hungary and in the presence of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who has a strict anti-migration policy, the pope defended before thousands of people that everyone should “welcome and spread love”, bringing “the inclusive and never exclusive herd”.
“We are all, without exception, called to leave our comfort zones and have the courage to go to all the peripheries that need the light of the Gospel,” stressed Francis, quoted by the EFE news agency, stressing that all Christians must “become, like Jesus, an open door”.
“It is sad and painful to see closed doors: the closed doors of our selfishness against those who walk with us every day, the closed doors of our individualism in a society that risks shrinking into loneliness.” deplored Francis, who repeatedly defended the reception and charity towards migrants during this trip.
In the country that has built barbed wire fences to prevent the passage of migrants from the Balkan route and practically grants no right to asylum, Francis lamented the “closed doors of indifference to those who are immersed in suffering and poverty; the closed doors doors to the foreigner, to the different, to the migrant, to the poor”.
But he also criticized those within the Church who close doors to those who are “out of order” or “craving for God’s forgiveness.”
For the laity, catechists and “those who have political and social responsibilities, those who simply go about their daily lives, sometimes with difficulty”, the Argentine pope urged them to “be open doors”.
Francis returns to Rome this afternoon, after addressing the academic and university world.
Source: DN
