Remember migrants and refugees in Holy Week, says Pope Francis

Pope Francis has put migrants at the heart of Holy Week by likening their suffering to Christ’s.

In his Palm Sunday homily the Pope departed from his prepared script to say: “I think of the many people, so many outcasts, so many asylum seekers, so many refugees, all of those for whose fate no one wishes to take responsibility.”

He explained that Jesus also experienced the “shame and disgraceful condemnation by religious and political authorities” and the “indifference” of people.  On Maundy Thursday, Francis was due to wash the feet of 12 migrants at a centre that offers them shelter and hospitality.

The Pope has made the plight of migrants a key part of his papacy with his first visit outside of Rome as Pope to Lampedusa, a point of entry for thousands coming to Europe from North Africa. He has repeatedly tried to stir the conscience of the world to respond to the plight of millions fleeing war and poverty to Europe in what has been arguably the greatest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. Last year, there were more than a million new arrivals on the continent.

Francis’ remarks about indifference came just days after a deal between the European Union and Turkey came into effect. It aims to ensure that migrants arriving in Greece are sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or their claim is rejected. In return, EU countries will resettle Syrian migrants living in Turkey. Some 50,000 migrants are in Greece with more new arrivals reported.

Last year, the Pope urged European parishes and religious houses to welcome at least one refugee family. In January, however, in a speech to diplomats he recognised the pressure of new arrivals on Europe as “undermining the foundations of that ‘humanistic spirit’ which Europe has always loved and defended”.

Earlier this month he told left-wing French Christians that Europe faced an “Arab invasion”. The ensuing controversy blew over after participants clarified the context of his comments. The Pope had met a 32-strong delegation led by the Pink Fish, a group of Christians close to France’s Socialist Party, for a 90-minute session on 1 March. Brief social media reports of the visit were confusing, but participants clarified that the Pope had joined neither the right-wingers in denouncing Middle Eastern migrants to Europe nor the left-wingers demanding more laïcité in France. Referring to the migration wave, he told the group: “One can speak now of an Arab invasion.” But he made clear he meant this was another wave of immigration akin to those the continent had seen throughout its history, which it had always absorbed and been enriched by.

On the night of Good Friday the Pope was due to lead the Stations of the Cross at the Roman Colosseum with meditations on each station written by Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, Archbishop of Perugia-Città della Pieve.

The meditations reflect on seeing Christ in the stranger, especially migrants. There were to be prayers for families facing difficulties, especially those whose marriages are failing, for abused children and “those who have suffered abuse or whose dignity is not respected”. There were also to be reflections on persecuted Christians, Jews killed in death camps and two Catholics killed in Auschwitz: Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest, and Edith Stein, a Jewish philosopher who became a nun.