Pope Francis has called on Catholic parishes, convents and monasteries across Europe to shelter at least one refugee family each.
The Pope said the two small parishes at the Vatican “will welcome in these days two families of refugees”.
The plight of refugees from war-torn Syria has sparked calls for action worldwide, notably after a photo of a drowned boy was publicised.
Making the appeal during his Angelus prayer in St Peter’s Square on Sunday, the Pontiff said the Gospel does not allow Christians to sit back from helping those in need.
“In front of the tragedy of the tens of thousands of refugees escaping death by war or hunger, on the path towards the hope of life, the Gospel calls us, asks us to be ‘neighbours’ of the smallest and most abandoned,” Francis said.
Christians, the Pope said, must give the refugees “a concrete hope. Not only to say: ‘Courage, patience!'”
Francis said sheltering refugee families by Catholic institutions would be “a concrete gesture in preparation of the Holy Year of Mercy”.
“Every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every shrine of Europe house a family, starting from my diocese of Rome,” he said.
A Vatican spokesman, Fr Ciro Benedettini, quoted the Pope’s chief alms-giver as saying the Vatican is now deciding which families will be hosted.
Before the Pope’s comments, Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw-Praga had backed plans by the government of Slovakia to admit only non-Muslim refugees and called for priority to be given to “endangered Christians”.
A similar call was made by a former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, who said Britain should be prioritising Christian refugees who are victims of “ethnic cleansing” and have been crucified, beheaded, raped, and subjected to forced conversion by ISIS.
Lord Carey said Britain should “crush” ISIS by taking part in military action in Syria.
The European commission is expected to release a proposal this week calling for EU members to agree to a quota system in which each would agree to host a portion of an estimated 160,000 refugees.
Sources