Pope to welcome new group of refugees from Lesbos

Cardinal Krajewski with refugee children

Source: Vatican News

On the express wish of Pope Francis and thanks to a new humanitarian corridor, tomorrow, 33 refugees seeking political asylum will arrive in Italy from Lesbos, Greece. The Apostolic Almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, left on Monday for the island in the Aegean Sea, from where he will return on 4 December accompanying these migrants. Alongside the cardinal were some leaders from the Sant'Egidio Community. By the end of the year this group will be joined by another 10 refugees. The news was issued in a statement from the Almoner's office.

Cardinal Krajewski visited the refugees on Lesbos again in May, with the new Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Belgium.

On 16 April 2016 Pope Francis personally met with migrants from Moria refugee camp. He returned to Italy with three families of Syrian asylum seekers. They were received and cared for by the Holy See, while the hospitality and path of integration was provided by the Sant'Egidio community.

In sending the Papal Almoner to visit the migrants on Lesbos again, Pope Francis renew his closeness to the Greek people and refugees and at the same time express his desire to make a "further gesture of solidarity," hosting "a group of young refugees and some families" from Afghanistan, Cameroon and Togo.

After an "intense itinerary of official negotiations" between the relevant bodies, the Italian Ministry of the Interior gave "its definitive consent" to carry out the operation. The reception of all these refugees will also be "at the expense" of the Holy See, through the office of the Apostolic Almoner, and of the Sant'Egidio Community.

On 19 November the archdiocese of Luxembourg, led by Cardinal Hollerich, also opened its doors to two families of refugees from the same camp on the Greek island, one originally from Kuwait with two children aged 8 and 5 and one from Syria with twins aged almost two years.