During its annual celebratory speech on Christmas Eve, Pope Francis strongly defended the immigrants, comparing them with Mary and Josephwho could not find a place in Bethlehem. The Pope said that faith requires to help foreigners and support them.
Noting the fifth Christmas as Pope and leader of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, Pope Francis held a solemn mass for 10,000 faithful in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Thousands of people listened to the Pope’s speech outside the Basilica, on the square.
During the mass, the Pope read a passage from the gospel, telling how Mary and Joseph went from Nazareth to Bethlehem in order to participate in the census declared by the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus.
«So many other people were on the trail of Joseph and Mary. We see how entire families are forced to go to other countries in our day. We see the millions of people who would not want to leave their homeland, but were driven from their land and left their loved ones,» said Francis.
The Pope called on the faithful to «a new social world … in which no one should feel that he has no place on this earth.»
«It is a joy to which we are called to share, celebrate and proclaim. The joy with which God, in his infinite mercy has embraced us, the pagans, sinners and foreigners. And he requires that we do the same,» said the Pontiff.
In his speech, Francis also condemned human traffickers, for which a desperate and lost the faith of the migrants are easy prey and the way of profit.
