Cardinal Parolin urges international community to work together on refugee crisis

Cardinal Parolin

The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the current refugee crisis is a "global problem", and called on the international community to join forces. Cardinal Parolin was speaking on the side lines of a surprise visit to Rome's Gemelli Hospital - the institution which treated Pope St. John Paul II on several occasions.

Cardinal Parolin acknowledged that "some people have invoked the United Nations," adding that he thinks it is "a global problem that needs a response from different levels," but that it should "involve everyone."

He called on people to "overcome polemics" and "make an examination of conscience on these issues," including the Church. "Polemics does nothing to solve problems, but rather exacerbates the hardships, and exacerbates tempers," Cardinal Parolin said.

During his homily at the Mass which celebrated at the hospital, Cardinal Parolin said: "nothing can be as disastrous for the faith and for culture and medical care, as losing sight of the whole person."

Cardinal Parolin said recent events show that approaches to health care which ignore the Christian "anthropological vision" eventually prove to be "inadequate."

Alluding to the Parable of the Sower, he said that if "good intentions" are not rooted in the Gospel, they are almost always "drowned out by the needs of the hegemonic culture" or by interests and compromises which "have nothing to do with the needs of the Kingdom of God on earth."

*In a statement on Friday Caritas Europa described the deaths lately of migrants in a truck in Austria and a boat off the coast of Libya as 'catastrophic' and urge the European community to do more to help people fleeing from war zones.

Source: Vatican Radio