Pope Comforts Migrants At Lesbos Refugee Camp While Urging Action

LOADING ERROR LOADING LESBOS, Greece — Pope Francis returned Sunday to the Greek island of Lesbos to offer comfort to migrants at a refugee camp and blast what he said was the indifference and self-interest shown by Europe “that condemns to death those on the fringes.” “Please, let us stop this shipwreck of civilization!” Francis said at the Mavrovouni camp, a cluster of white U.N. containers on the edge of the sea lined by barbed wire fencing and draped with laundry hanging from lines. Francis’ five-day trip to Cyprus and Greece has been dominated by the migrant issue and Francis’ call for European countries to stop building walls, stoking fears and shutting out “those in greater need who knock at our door.” “I ask every man and woman, all of us, to overcome the paralysis of fear, the indifference that kills, the cynical disregard that nonchalantly condemns to death those on the fringes!” he said. “Let us stop ignoring reality, stop constantly shifting responsibility, stop passing off the issue of migration to others, as if it mattered to no one and was only a pointless burden to be shouldered by somebody else!” Pope Francis meets migrants during his visit at the Karatepe refugee camp in Greece on Sunday. We plead with the pope to help us, to speak on our behalf to Europe, to help us.” Francis’ visit to Lesbos was the highlight of his five-day trip, recalling his 2016 visit with the Orthodox leadership when he wept at the plight of asylum-seekers packed into a camp that eventually burned down last year.