adding that he would begin with the Diocese of Rome, and that the two Vatican parishes will be welcoming two refugee families in the coming days.
Since the beginning of his mandate, the Pope is calling for kind welcoming of the immigrants who are fleeing their countries due to misery, war and religious or political persecution; and for granting them a second chance in the host country. This topic is actually a fundamental issue in his pontificate.
However, the Pope affirms in parallel the necessity of addressing the causes of immigration in the countries of origin and asks the immigrants to integrate in such a way that respects the laws of the host country.
Although the Pope has called on the Catholic church in the world, and through it all the Christian churches, to commit to the teachings of the Gospel in dealing with the refugees all over the world and to be merciful with them, he never stopped calling upon the European countries, divided over the influx of refugees, to find a «collective response» and a «fair distribution of the burdens» between them.
In fact, the Pope is implicitly indicting the International Community for causing this exodus as it has not worked on a fair distribution of wealth and did not exert huge efforts to provide semi-equal opportunities between nations and peoples. As a result, the poorest, the least fortunate, the most oppressed and the war victims, particularly the wars of others, have taken refuge in the safest countries and those that provide major future opportunities; they headed towards the United States, and more so to Europe, being closer to our Arab world, and that of the Muslim world, both of whom do not provide the people, except rarely, with human rights before equal opportunities.
It is about time for the international community to begin seeking serious and lasting solutions instead of throwing the refugees breadcrumbs and organizing conferences that cost a lot of money for studying the reasons, expecting the results and publishing them as recommendations that more than often are simply archived.