ROME – Pope Francis said Thursday that immigrants should be valued for their dreams and talents, instead of treating them as “a problem that I can do something about.”
“I am deeply disappointed to see that immigration is not seen as an empowering force and remains shrouded in a dark cloud of mistrust,” the pope said. declared He said this in his annual address to members of the diplomatic corps.
“People on the move are simply seen as a problem to be managed,” he lamented, calling for them not to be “treated like objects to be moved.”
Immigrants “have dignity and resources to offer to others. They have unique experiences, needs, fears, aspirations, dreams, skills and talents,” he said.
What is needed, the Pope suggested, is an international effort to combat the phenomenon of migration by creating “safe regular channels.”
Migrants themselves are forced to walk thousands of kilometers through Central America or the Sahara, or cross the Mediterranean or the English Channel in crowded makeshift boats, only to be turned away or forced to live in secret abroad. “I'm just forced to do it,” he said regretfully.
“We often forget that we are dealing with real people who should be welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated,” he added.
On the same topic, Francis said: “We need to confront the root causes of migration, so that leaving home and looking elsewhere is a choice and not a necessary means of survival.”
In this regard, he suggested that a common approach to development could be a “tool that helps eliminate some of the causes that lead people to migrate.”
In his speech, the Pope also touched on another of his favorite themes: caring for the environment and the “crisis” of climate change.
We are all debtors, he said, not only to God and others, but also “to our beloved earth, from which we derive our daily bread.”
As a result, “each of us must feel responsible in some way for the devastation suffered by our common homeland,” he recommended.
“Nature itself seems to be rebelling against human action with extreme manifestations of its power,” he said, citing examples such as “the catastrophic floods in central Europe and Spain, the cyclones that hit Madagascar in the spring, and the cyclone that occurred just before that. Christmas, Mayotte, France and Mozambique. ”
We have no right to “remain indifferent in the face of all this,” he declared.
The Pope went on to praise the promise made at the COP29 climate change summit in Baku to “secure more financial resources to fight climate change.”
“We believe this will enable us to share resources with many countries that are heavily affected by the climate crisis and burdened with oppressive economic debt,” he said, particularly given the He added that humanity's awareness of its ecological debt is increasing. north and south of the world.
