Pope Francis used a visit to Strasbourg, France, to deliver a message to the European Parliament on Tuesday, encouraging them to change the way it currently treats immigrants.
The pontiff, who is the first non-European pope in more than 1,000 years, said Europe needs to craft a unified and fair immigration policy. The last pope to address the Parliament was John Paul II in 1988.
Francis said the tens of thousands of refugees coming ashore each year in Europe need acceptance and assistance, not self-interested policies that risk lives and fuel social conflict.
Pope in Peugeot arrives at Council of Europe where he will talk to representatives of 47 member states pic.twitter.com/BpNJpxbKkW— Gerard O'Connell (@gerryorome) November 25, 2014
Greeted with polite applause at the start of his speech and a sustained standing ovation at its finish, Francis said he wanted to bring a message of hope to Europeans distrustful of their institutions, burdened by economic crisis and spiritually adrift in a culture that he said no longer values the dignity of human beings.
"We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery," he said, referring to the migrants who drown while traveling to Europe by sea. The pontiff's remarks come as Greece was taking measures to help a container ship in distress, which is carrying hundreds of undocumented migrants.
The Pope has frequently spoken out about the plight of migrants seeking a better life in Europe. He travelled to the Italian island of Lampedusa in summer 2013 to show solidarity with the migrants who arrive and to honor those who have died trying; a number that officials estimate that number to be more than 2,000 this year alone.
Francis warned that the absence of a coherent EU migration policy "contributes to slave labor and continuing social tensions."
A #Vatican flag raised in #Strasbourg, France to acknowledge the arrival of #Pope's day trip #PopeEU @cnalive #Europe pic.twitter.com/BfmIGEfcGV— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) November 25, 2014
He called for Europeans to enact legislation that ensures immigrants are accepted and to adopt "fair, courageous and realistic policies" toward their countries of origins, to help them resolve the conflicts that fuel migration "rather than adopting policies motivated by self-interest, which increase and feed such conflicts."
#PopeFrancis: "A #Europe which is no longer open to the transcendent dimension of life is a Europe which risks slowly losing its own soul"— EP PressService (@EuroParlPress) November 25, 2014
He also spoke of a need to reinvigorate the continent, describing it as a "grandmother, no longer fertile and vibrant" and saying it risked "slowly losing its own soul."
"The great ideas which once inspired Europe seem to have lost their attraction, only to be replaced by the bureaucratic technicalities of its institutions," he added.
The speech was the first of two Francis delivered in Strasbourg. After the warm welcome at the Parliament building, Francis traveled a brief distance away to the Council of Europe amid heavy security; hundreds of police cordoned off a large security zone and small police motor boats patrolled the river between parliament and the Council of Europe.
A standing ovation for Pope Francis at the European Parliament in Strasburg. @julie4nw @TheresaMEP @akhanmep pic.twitter.com/n1pELR2GZu— Barbara Cannon (@BarbaraACannon) November 25, 2014
The most sustained applause came when he spoke about "barbaric violence" against Christians in much of the world amid "the shameful and complicit silence of many." Legislators also applauded when he spoke about the dignity of work and how it is "intolerable" that so many people die of hunger when tons of food are thrown away each day.
"I think the applause you gave indicates that Pope Francis has reached many, if not all of us," Parliament President Martin Schulz told the assembly. Turning to Francis, he added: "You are a person who gives us guidance at a time when we have lost our compass."
Additional reporting by the Associated Press.