(TheIndependentStar.com) – Arguing that immigration laws should be less strict to allow more illegals to cross borders, Pope Francis declared that turning away them is a “grave sin.”
He said that rather than tightening laws and militarizing borders, there should be more secure and regular ways for people to migrate, along with a global approach to migration based on justice, fraternity, and solidarity.
“It must be said clearly: there are those who work systematically and by any means to turn away migrants – to turn away migrants,” the pope stated. “And this, when done with conscience and responsibility, is a grave sin.”
He emphasized that God shares in the struggles of illegals, suffering, weeping, and hoping with them. God is with them, with migrants, he suffers with them, with migrants, he weeps and hopes with them, with migrants,” he insisted, adding that the Lord is with the illegals, “not with those who turn them away.”
Francis also lauded NGOs and others who help and save migrants in need. “These courageous men and women are a sign of a humanity that does not allow itself to be infected by the bad culture of indifference and waste,” he added. “What kills migrants is our indifference and that attitude of discarding.”
Moreover, the push for more lenient migration policies has been a central theme of Pope Francis’s papacy, and he has criticized those who advocate for stronger borders as “xenophobic.”
However, African church leaders have sharply criticized this stance.
Nigerian Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the archbishop of Abuja, said that mass migration indicates failed political leadership in Nigeria. “Authorities should make Nigeria home. Same should be applicable to other African countries,” he argued.
Similarly, Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, former head of the Vatican’s liturgical department, has criticized the Church’s migration stance. He believed it was wrong to use the Bible to promote migration, calling it a “false interpretation.”
Cardinal Sarah has warned that focusing on migration and ecology risks making the Church seem like just another NGO. “The crisis of the Church is above all a crisis of the faith,” he said.
Likewise, Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze has urged Europeans to stop encouraging African migration, arguing that people are better off in their own countries.
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