Migrant crisis: Take in refugee families, says Pope

Thousands of people are moving across southern Europe as they flee war and persecution in Africa and the Middle East.
Pope Francis Speaking to pilgrims in St Peter's Square in the Vatican in Rome, has urged Catholic parishes across Europe to take in refugee families so as to help to resolve the migrant crisis.

"May every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every sanctuary of Europe, take in one family,” he said.

“Before the tragedy of tens of thousands of refugees fleeing death in conflict and hunger and are on a journey of hope, the gospel calls us to be close to the smallest and to those who have been abandoned,” he said.

For Catholics, offering shelter to a refugee family would be seen as a “concrete act of preparation” for the Jubilee Year of Mercy beginning in December, he added.

Francis said the Vatican would itself be extending help to two families who will be taken in by Vatican parishes.

The call goes out to tens of thousands of Catholic parishes in Europe. There are more than 25,000 parishes in Italy alone, and more than 12,000 in Germany, where many of the refugees are hoping to settle.