Pope Francis: Refugee centers are like the Nazi concentration camps

In his homily, Pope Francis praised the generosity of Italy and Greece, the first European country in which refugees arriving on the path to Europe and criticized the international agreements that prevent redistribution of migrants across Europe. The overcrowded reception centers compared with the Nazi concentration camps. "Refugee centers are concentration camps" because they are overcrowded, said Francis during a special religious ceremony in central Rome, at the commemoration of Christian martyrs of our time.

"The truth is, we in Europe, we civilizations that cease to bear children, but at the same time we close the door to immigrants. It's called suicide", said the Pope. He remembered then meeting with a man and three of his children last year when he visited a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. The man told him that he was a Muslim and that his wife, a Christian "terrorists" were slaughtered before his eyes, because he refused to give up the cross.

The Pope did not specify the nationality of the man, but he added, "I do not know if he had managed to leave the concentration camp". Pope Celebrates Mass in the Basilica of St. Bartholomew in crimson chairs that belonged Ragheed Aziz Ganni, Chaldean priest killed in Mosul in Iraq, 2007.

• 22 Apr, 2017
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