This was the year 2016 when Pope Francis visited the Ecumenical Patriarch, the head of the Archbishop of Constantinople, Bartolumi I and Archbishop of Athens, Jeronimo II, Lespos to highlight the great Immigration problem All over the world. They found themselves at the reception and definition center in Moriah with refugees and migrants who accepted their hands and assumed assistance.
The Holy Pope praised the role of Greece in the immigration case because, despite what the country was living at that time because of the economic crisis, he welcomed thousands of refugees and migrants. “Pope Francis wanted to attract the world’s attention in particular about the refugee problem,” explains “Euronews”, the head of the Archbishop of Athens, the Catholic, Theodoros Contidis.
the The migratory crisisKontidis says, “I have gained dimensions that were already from a global crisis, and there should be international mobilization, because there was no country, not even a relatively small country like Greece, they might face it. Not only a social and political issue, but a humanitarian issue. sensitive What was an important example. “
Immigration, one of the repeated issues of Pope Francis
Los Refugees They are not numbers. “They are people who have faces, names and stories, and as people should treat,” he said in 2016, after his visit to Lesbos, after his visit to the conflicting Lesbos, among the Syrian refugees.
“We understand this sensitivity if we look at their CV and the number of pages that devote the similar experience of their grandparents. They started in Italy after the war, in poverty, in insecurity, and facing the risks or exploitation that many of these immigrants and many of these people who have organized them a trip“They often stole them and left them again without money,” says Theodoros Contidis.
“He lived all this, he heard him at home, and he heard him from his parents, I found him and grandfather. So he is a His family experience This is why it is especially sensitive to this issue, ”says the head of the Catholic Athens of Athens.
Not only in Greece: From Lambidosa to his desire to visit the Canary Islands
Pope Francis was suspended and anxious about the various immigrant crises and its consequences. In 2013, Lambidosa visited the Italian islandI moved by the shipwreck before. The Pope said: “Our society has forgotten what is screaming with others, and sympathy. It is the globalization of indifference that has taken our ability to feel.”
In addition, Pope Francis expressed The intention of traveling Canary Islands To follow closely Immigration problem In the islands, one of the most expected visits in Spain, which cannot be implemented due to health problems.
At the end of September 2024, when on the coasts iron There was one of the greatest wreckage of ships, with more than 60 dead and missing, Francisco said that the tragedies of migrants in the sea were “crying”. He said about the total immigration crisis: “These people missing in the Canary Islands are hurting, many immigrants looking for freedom and who are lost in the sea or almost on the coast.”
The second visit to Greece in 2021
The second time that the Greece Pope visited in 2021. He returned to Lesbus to see Refugees and migrants. From there he criticized the position of those who refuse in Europe to face the problem.
In addition, Francisco was in Athens, where he met Political and religious leaders in the countryFamous for the Mass in the main hall of the Athens Party Chamber and made letters of young people.
It was the feature of Pope Francis Humility. Go in a small car. He avoided staying in luxury hotels. This happened during his trip to Athens in 2021.
“I wanted a simple churchNear the individual, the poor near the poor. A church free of strong effects, free from the aspirations of wealth, influence and worldly glory. ”The Archbishop of the Catholic Athens of Athens, Theodore Contendis.
“This is the freedom that gives simplicity and evangelical freedom, because it is the freedom of Christ, the freedom of the Gospel, and the freedom of Saint Francis, who had a model, because he took his name. He really wanted to follow this example. It was not just a name. Hope message For today’s world, “Bishops add.
In 2022, and Vatican Three fragments of the sculptures of the part returned to Greece, in a symbolic gesture of the Pope to the Archbishop of Athens and all Greece. In 2023, he referred to the believers in Plaza de San Pedro, Francisco referred to the fires destroyed by Greece at that time, expressing its solidarity with the Greek people.
