Pope visits migrants on Lesbos
Pope Francis visited the Moria detention camp on the island of Lesbos Saturday.
Some men, women and children wept as they met the pope. One man said, “Thank you God. Thank you. Please Father, bless me.”
Francis also accepted art work from children. As he handed one art project off to his staff, he said “Don’t fold it. I want it on my desk.”
The European media is reporting Pope Francis, the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics, will take some migrants back to the Vatican with him.
He is also scheduled to have lunch with migrants at a detention center.
EU-Turkish deal
His trip comes as the European Union and Turkey have entered into a controversial deportation deal to end Europe’s worst migrant crisis since World War II.
Human rights groups say the scheme for dealing with the crisis does not recognize the inherent dignity of the migrants as human beings, but instead treats them as merchandise that can be traded back and forth.
The Vatican says the pope’s trip is not a “direct” criticism of the scheme, but is instead a purely humanitarian visit.
The Vatican says the pope was invited to the island by the leader of the Christian Orthodox Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos.
Bartholomew, as well as Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Jerome II, joined Pope Francis in Lesbos.
Source: VOANews.com
