Pope
Francis has criticised Europe's 'indifferent and anaesthetised
conscience' over migrants in a stirring Good Friday address in Rome.
'O
Cross of Christ, today we see you in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas
which have become insatiable cemeteries, reflections of our indifferent
and anaesthetised conscience,' the 79-year old pontiff said, referring
to the thousands who set off in unseaworthy boats to reach Greece and
the rest of Europe.
In
a wide-ranging diatribe in Rome's historic Colosseum, he also raged
against the ills within the Church, fiercely denouncing paedophile
priests, those 'unfaithful ministers who, instead of stripping
themselves of their own vain ambitions, divest even the innocent of
their dignity'.
Pope Francis
has long called for the global community to open its doors to refugees
and fight xenophobia - appeals which have intensified since a
controversial deal between Europe and Turkey to expel migrants arriving
in Greece.
The
address came after Pope Francis led thousands of Catholics through the
streets of Rome as part of the Via Circus torchlit procession.
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