Pope Francis Calls for Open Doors to Migration

Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, declared in an interview with the American television network CBS, broadcast yesterday, that the solution to the migrant crises in the world is an open door to migration. For a public migration policy to be good, the pontiff considers it must have four elements: receive migrants, assist them, promote migration, and integrate them. Integration into life in the new society, the prelate considers, is the most important.

The journalist referred to an attempt by the state of Texas to close a Catholic charity that offers humanitarian aid to undocumented migrants.

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During his visit to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in 2016, the Pope approached the border wall between the United States and Mexico to pray for the people who have lost their lives trying to cross into the northern country. He later held a mass before more than 200,000 people.

The southern border of the United States has seen an increase in migration flow in recent years. According to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there were 1,734,686 border encounters in 2021. This number rose to 2,378,944 in 2022 and 2,475,669 in 2023. As of April, this year, 1,520,502 encounters had been recorded.

The pontiff emphasized, “Migration is something that makes a country grow.”

The family of the leader of the Catholic Church, his father, and grandparents, migrated to Argentina fleeing Italian fascism in 1929.

In this regard, the leader of the Catholic Church remarked, “Migrants suffer a lot.”

In St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, there is a sculpture of migrants. It represents a woman displaced by the Syrian war, a child escaping the Irish famine in the mid-19th century, a Jew fleeing the Nazi regime during World War II, and other figures from major historical migrations worldwide. This work was unveiled by Pope Francis in 2019 during the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

“People wash their hands,” lamented Jorge Mario Bergoglio. “They see what is happening, the wars, the injustices, the crimes...and they wash their hands. Indifference...the globalization of indifference is a very ugly disease, very ugly.”

In the interview, Pope Francis also addressed the issue of climate change.

“Unfortunately, we have reached a point of no return,” the pontiff asserted.

Among the migrations, forced displacements due to the impacts of this anthropogenic phenomenon must also be considered.

The Pope is the first to choose the name Francis for his papacy, after Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of the poor and the environment.