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dpa
Athens/Nicosia
During his visit to Greece, Pope Francis praised the achievements of politics while warning against the enemies of democracy.
“Democracy was born here,” the pontiff recalled in Athens on Saturday after being received by President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
“From the cradle, millennia later, became a house, a great house of democratic peoples: I refer to the European Union and to the dream of peace and fraternity that it represents for many peoples.” Francis had flown from Cyprus to Athens in the morning for the second leg of a trip to the eastern Mediterranean.
The head of the Catholic Church underlined the country’s central role in history in his speech, which was peppered with references to the classical authors, thinkers and scholars of antiquity such as Homer, Aristotle and Hippocrates.
“Without Athens and Greece, Europe and the world would not be what they are,” Francis said. “They would be less wise and less happy.” But now it is important not to lose what has been achieved. One can “only note with concern that it is not only on the European continent that there is a regression in democracy,” the Pope warned.
Some societies are numbed by consumption, tired and dissatisfied with democracy. He therefore called on everyone to participate in public life and politics and to be patient.
At the same time, he said, there is scepticism about democracy because of, for example, too much bureaucracy or a certain loss of identity.
“The remedy for this does not lie in the obsessive search for popularity, in the addiction to attention, in announcing impossible promises or in agreeing to abstract ideological colonisation, but in good politics,” the pontiff emphasised.
Pope Francis had left Cyprus earlier Saturday he met with refugees on Friday, the second day of his trip to Cyprus, during which he deplored the plight of migrants internationally.
“This is the tale of universal slavery,” Francis said. “We see what is happening. Even worse, we are getting used to it.” He was visibly moved as he listened to migrants recounting their journeys. One youngster named Rozh said he had to flee Iraq and was “driven over dusty roads, pushed into trucks, thrown into leaky boats, cheated, exploited, forgotten.” The pontiff has repeatedly drawn attention to the conditions faced by migrants and refugees in recent years. As part of the trip, he is to take 50 migrants back with him to Italy.
The Holy See confirmed on Friday that 12 people would be flown to Rome in the coming weeks, while the others are to follow later, according to the ANSA news agency.
Among those chosen to start a new life in Italy were a married couple from Somalia. The two have been stuck in the buffer zone on the divided island of Cyprus for almost two years, the Cypriot Interior Ministry said.Pope Francis calls migration crisis a ‘tale of universal slavery’
Athens/Nicosia
During his visit to Greece, Pope Francis praised the achievements of politics while warning against the enemies of democracy.
“Democracy was born here,” the pontiff recalled in Athens on Saturday after being received by President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
“From the cradle, millennia later, became a house, a great house of democratic peoples: I refer to the European Union and to the dream of peace and fraternity that it represents for many peoples.” Francis had flown from Cyprus to Athens in the morning for the second leg of a trip to the eastern Mediterranean.
The head of the Catholic Church underlined the country’s central role in history in his speech, which was peppered with references to the classical authors, thinkers and scholars of antiquity such as Homer, Aristotle and Hippocrates.
“Without Athens and Greece, Europe and the world would not be what they are,” Francis said. “They would be less wise and less happy.” But now it is important not to lose what has been achieved. One can “only note with concern that it is not only on the European continent that there is a regression in democracy,” the Pope warned.
Some societies are numbed by consumption, tired and dissatisfied with democracy. He therefore called on everyone to participate in public life and politics and to be patient.
At the same time, he said, there is scepticism about democracy because of, for example, too much bureaucracy or a certain loss of identity.
“The remedy for this does not lie in the obsessive search for popularity, in the addiction to attention, in announcing impossible promises or in agreeing to abstract ideological colonisation, but in good politics,” the pontiff emphasised.
Pope Francis had left Cyprus earlier Saturday he met with refugees on Friday, the second day of his trip to Cyprus, during which he deplored the plight of migrants internationally.
“This is the tale of universal slavery,” Francis said. “We see what is happening. Even worse, we are getting used to it.” He was visibly moved as he listened to migrants recounting their journeys. One youngster named Rozh said he had to flee Iraq and was “driven over dusty roads, pushed into trucks, thrown into leaky boats, cheated, exploited, forgotten.” The pontiff has repeatedly drawn attention to the conditions faced by migrants and refugees in recent years. As part of the trip, he is to take 50 migrants back with him to Italy.
The Holy See confirmed on Friday that 12 people would be flown to Rome in the coming weeks, while the others are to follow later, according to the ANSA news agency.
Among those chosen to start a new life in Italy were a married couple from Somalia. The two have been stuck in the buffer zone on the divided island of Cyprus for almost two years, the Cypriot Interior Ministry said.Pope Francis calls migration crisis a ‘tale of universal slavery’
