Pope: ‘No one can turn a blind eye to those who are seeking protection and safety’
Leo XIV spoke about World Refugee Day at today’s Angelus, urging everyone to “welcome those who are victims of persecution”. On the day's Gospel, he said the faithful should “respond to hatred with love, to arrogance with meekness”. Yesterday, he visited Pavia where he venerated the relics of Saint Augustine, saying that reason is not confined to the “logic of profit or domination”.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Pope Leo XIV spoke today after the Angelus from the window of the Vatican Apostolic Palace about the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees, which was celebrated yesterday, World Refugee Day.
In his address, the pontiff said that, “No one can turn a blind eye to those who are seeking protection and safety.” In fact, the Convention “was adopted to protect those who are persecuted and forced to leave their homeland, homes and families”.
“I hope that the spirit that inspired the drafting of this important international instrument may also continue to enlighten the consciences of national leaders today,” he added, urging “everyone to welcome those who are victims of persecution so that they may live in peace, with dignity, and look to the future with hope.”
St Peter's Square was bathed in the irrepressible light of a summer day, crowded with thousands of people who gathered to listen to the pontiff and greet him up close.
Before the Angelus, Leo XIV spoke about the Gospel of the day (Mt 10, 26-33). In the passage, Jesus sends the disciples on a mission and tells them: “What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light”.
The pope spoke of the "strength of any apostolate," which is based not only on "techniques and tools," but also on "the work of the Holy Spirit within us”, and on the true response we give to the latter.
Saint Thomas, Leo noted, explains preaching as “passing on to others what we have contemplated.” Thus, contemplation is not “an exclusive experience, reserved only for a few saints or for monks and hermits”.
“We can all do it, by striving to set aside, amidst the commitments of our daily lives, quiet moments in which to enter into silence before God, to listen to his voice, to entrust our joys and concerns to him and to review our lives with him.
“This helps us to have a more firm and conscious faith, and consequently to be credible and free disciples, men and women capable of reflecting the light of the Gospel in every setting and every situation of life, and of bearing witness to it even where its value is not understood or accepted.”
Leo contextualised the words of the Evangelist Matthew, written for communities “whose lives were not easy”, and who faced “hostility and persecution”.
“Now, just as then, it is a challenge to remain faithful to Jesus’ teachings and to proclaim his word: to respond to hatred with love, to arrogance with meekness, and to discouragement with perseverance,” he said.
Even today, it is as necessary as ever to spread his “message of hope, love and peace. The world greatly needs it!”
Yesterday, thousands of people warmly welcomed Leo XIV in Pavia, a city in the Italian region of Lombardy, where the Basilica of St Peter in the Golden Sky houses the relics of Saint Augustine, whom the pontiff venerated.
Members of Italy’s Peruvian community also greeted the pontiff in Pavia’s Piazza Duomo. For many years, he served as a missionary in Chiclayo, northern Peru. Thousands of people also gathered in Piazza della Vittoria (Victory Square) to greet him and listen to him.
For the pope it was an opportunity to issue a strong appeal.
Speaking in front of the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary and St Stephen Protomartyr, he said: “enough with hateful words, enough with insults, enough with bullying, enough with all those things that wage war between people, between communities, between countries.”
“We must all learn to be peacemakers and promoters of reconciliation.”
To activity planners and children of the parish of Grest, he said: "Persevere, participate, try to build authentic friendship, not friendship only with the screen, with the phone. True friendship in person! Present! All present!”
In Piazza Vittoria (Victory Square), in front of about 3,500 people, he slammed “forms of degradation and civic illiteracy”.
In order to promote “good citizenship”, he added, “we are called to share languages of dedication and service, which preserve squares, parks, and streets as meeting places par excellence,” as well as “nurture harmony through dialogue and constructive encounters between the people and cultures that give life to Pavia.”
Speaking about Saint Augustine, the pope noted that the Bishop of Hippo, “while embodying the arduous and constant dialogue between faith and reason, testifies to their mutual affiliation.”
Indeed, “one cannot believe without thinking, nor is it possible to illuminate the highest questions of reason without faith. With this trusting openness, human reason questions and plans, and does not lock itself into the logic of profit or domination, but discovers new ways to care for itself and the world.”
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