{"id":742672,"date":"2026-07-04T11:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/742672\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:48:11","slug":"pope-leo-calls-on-europe-to-do-more-for-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/742672\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo calls on Europe to do more for migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo<\/a> urged European leaders to do more to protect and integrate migrants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His remarks came during a day trip to Lampedusa<\/a>, Italy, a gateway for migrants risking dangerous Mediterranean crossings into Europe from Africa.<\/p>\n

“Europe is capable of addressing the crisis, in this region, in a comprehensive manner, integrating immediate relief efforts into a long-term strategic plan capable of receiving, protecting, supporting and integrating migrants,” the head of the Catholic Church<\/a> told a crowd of faithful.<\/p>\n

He added that it should do so while also assisting developing countries so that no one would be forced to emigrate.<\/p>\n

Lampedusa is a main port of entry into Europe for thousands of migrants<\/p>\n

Pope Leo prayed at a migrant cemetery, met migrants at the port, and celebrated mass on the island.<\/p>\n

“From this far-flung corner of Europe on the Mediterranean Sea, one can more clearly perceive the momentous challenge that the phenomenon of migration poses to European societies,” Leo told those gathered.<\/p>\n

More than 14,000 people landed in Italy during the first half of the year, most of whom set off from Libya, according to the UN refugee agency. Nearly 60% of them arrived in Lampedusa.<\/p>\n

Leo thanked the fishing and tourism community of 6,000 “for the solidarity that so many of you have shown.”<\/p>\n

Pope urges US to welcome immigrants<\/p>\n

Separately, the pontiff marked the 250th anniversary of US independence with an appeal to Americans to welcome and protect immigrants.<\/p>\n

In a letter sent to his home country, he said the Catholic value of defending life includes “welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants.”<\/p>\n

“To receive (immigrants) with compassion and generosity is not only an act of charity, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human person,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

\"The Pope drew the ire of President Donald Trump last year after calling his hardline anti-immigration policies inhumaneImage: Remo Casilli\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

It comes a day after he described how “successive waves of immigrants” played a role in building the United States<\/a>. In a video address to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, he said the word “America” is a “byword for freedom” globally due to the way the country has taken in immigrants.<\/p>\n

Edited by: Saim Du\u0161an Inayatullah<\/p>\n

Don’t let the algorithm hide the news. If you rely on our team for trusted reporting, please take a moment to select us as your Preferred news source on Google by clicking here<\/a>, so you’ll always see our verified news first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo urged European leaders to do more to protect and integrate migrants. His remarks came during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-742672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}