Pope Francis: It's a "Grave Sin" to Reject Desperate Migrants

"Let us not forget what the Bible says: ‘You shall not wrong or oppress a foreigner,'" the pontiff says.

By Gary Gately

In one of his strongest calls yet for welcoming desperate migrants, Pope Francis said intentionally turning them away amounts to a “grave sin.”

“It must be said clearly: There are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants,” Francis said in St. Peter’s Square during his weekly general audience Wednesday.

“And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin. Let us not forget what the Bible says: ‘You shall not wrong or oppress a foreigner.’ The orphan, the widow and the stranger are the quintessential poor whom God always defends and asks to be defended.”

The 87-year-old Jesuit pontiff said the Christian response lies not in “more restrictive laws” or “militarization of borders” but instead in expanding safe and legal avenues for migrants fleeing wars, violence, hunger, persecution and natural disasters.

Francis said this can be achieved through “fostering in every way a global governance of migration based on justice, fraternity and solidarity.”

He spoke specifically of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean Sea, in which 4,110 people died or went missing while crossing last year, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. More than 30,000 migrants crossing the Mediterranean have gone missing since 2014, the International Organization for Migration estimates.

The Mediterranean, Francis said, “has become a cemetery — and the tragedy is that many, the majority of these deaths, could have been prevented.”

Evoking the great migration of the Exodus, when God led his people to the promised land, Francis repeatedly referred to migrants crossing treacherous seas and deserts. He defined these broadly as oceans, lakes, rivers, sand and dunes, forests and jungles where migrants are left to fend for themselves, too often in the face of deadly dangers.

"Brothers and sisters,” Francis said, “we can all agree on one thing: Migrants should not be in those seas and in those lethal deserts, and, unfortunately, they are there.

“Let us join our hearts and forces so that the seas and deserts are not cemeteries but spaces where God may open up roads to freedom and fraternity,” added Francis, the son and grandson of Italian immigrants to Argentina.

“God himself crosses the sea and the desert” with migrants, Francis said. “He does not remain at a distance, no; he shares in the migrants’ tragedy, God is there with them, with the migrants, he suffers with them, with the migrants, he weeps and hopes with them, with the migrants.”

Francis’ comments came two days after Italian authorities issued a 60-day detention order for the Geo Barents, a search-and-rescue ship operated by Doctors Without Borders, for alleged violations of maritime safety regulations following several rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean.

But Doctors Without Borders denied those claims in a statement Tuesday, saying: “We have been sanctioned for simply fulfilling our legal duty to save lives.”

Francis also called on leaders to combat human trafficking to “stop the criminal traffickers who mercilessly exploit the misery of others.”

He did not specifically mention migration at the southern border of the U.S.

In a “60 Minutes” interview in May, Francis denounced Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to shut down Annunciation House, a 46-year-old Catholic network of migrant shelters based in El Paso.

“That is madness, sheer madness,” Francis said, adding: “The migrant has to be received. Then you see how you are going to deal with him. Maybe you have to send him back, I don’t know, but each case ought to be considered humanely.”

Francis pleaded with those gathered in St. Peter’s Square to remember migrants in their prayers.

"We cannot be on the front line, but we are not excluded; there are many ways for one to make their contribution, first of all prayer," he said, adding: "Do you pray for migrants? For those who come to our lands to save their lives?"