Pope Francis in his Palm Sunday homily on March 20 decried what he called indifference to the refugees flooding into Europe, making a comparison to authorities who washed their hands of Jesus’ fate before his crucifixion. The pope abandoned his homily text to lament Europe’s handling of the influx of migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing war, persecution or poverty from Syria, Iraq, Africa and elsewhere. Pope Francis connected Jesus’ experience in Jerusalem, triumphantly received and then rejected, to the contemporary plight of Middle East refugees. Jesus was “denied every justice,” he said. “Jesus also suffered indifference in his own flesh, because no one wanted to take on responsibility for his destiny,” the pope added. “And I am thinking of so many people, so many on the margins, so many refugees” for whom “many don’t want to assume responsibility for their destiny,” Francis said in a clear reference to Europe’s migration debate. In an effort to fight refugee smuggling, E.U. and Turkish officials just made a deal to send back to Turkey migrants now arriving on Greek islands.
Crisis of Indifference?
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
“Inside the Vatican” host Colleen Dulle shares how her visit to Argentina gave her a deeper understanding into Francis’ emphasis on “being amongst the people” and his belief that “you can’t do theology behind a desk.”
Christians who have lived in Nagorno-Karabakh for 2,000 years are being driven out by Azerbaijan. Will world leaders act?
The problem is not that TikTok users feel disappointed about the potential loss of an entertaining social platform; it is that many young people see a ban on TikTok as the end of, or at least a major disruption to, their social life.
Two new Broadway productions cast these two towering figures in sharp relief.