Pope Francis today called on the international community to "welcome" and "integrate" those forced to flee their homes and their countries.
Greeting new ambassadors of Tanzania, Lesotho, Pakistan, Mongolia, Denmark, Ethiopia and Finland to the Holy See, Pope Francis said: "Among the most pressing of the humanitarian issues facing the international community at present is the need to welcome, protect, promote and integrate all those fleeing from war and hunger, or forced by discrimination, persecution, poverty and environmental degradation to leave their homelands," said the Pope.
"As I had occasion to reiterate in my message for this year’s World Day of Peace, this problem has an intrinsically ethical dimension that transcends national borders and narrow conceptions of security and self-interest.
"Notwithstanding the complexity and delicacy of the political and social issues involved, individual nations and the international community are called to contribute as best they can to the work of pacification and reconciliation through decisions and policies marked above all by compassion, foresight and courage."
None can ignore their moral responsibility to challenge the “globalisation of indifference” that looks the other way in the face of tragic situations of injustice calling for an immediate humanitarian response, he continued.
This is "a time of truly epochal changes" = which calls for wisdom and discernment to secure a peaceful and prosperous future for coming generations.
The Church believes that the overarching goal of all diplomatic activity must be development, the integral development of each individual man and woman, children and elderly, and the development of nations in service of the common good.
Pope Francis referred to the 70th anniversary this year of the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"It is my hope that your presence and activity within the diplomatic community of the Holy See will contribute to the growth of that spirit of cooperation and mutual concern essential for an effective response to the far-reaching challenges of our day. For her part, the Church, convinced of our responsibility for one another, promotes every effort to cooperate, without violence and without deceit, in building up the world in a spirit of genuine brotherhood and peace."
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