Recognize gypsies as ethnic minority group, Vatican prelate suggests
April 04, 2014
Gypsies “have the right to be recognized at least as ethnic minorities in the countries where they live since they are the largest minority in the European Union,” the president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants argues.
In a message to a meeting of the International Catholic Committee for Gypsies, Cardinal Antonio Maria Veglio writes that the gypsies, also known as the Roma people, “need the humanity of the society in which they live in order to fell like members of the human family.”
The cardinal observes that “walls continue to be built that divide the peoples of the same continent, people from the same country or the same city.” To tear down those walls, he says, “one must begin in the heart, the first space where another is included, and as long as hearts are not open, it will not be easy to achieve an inclusive society.”
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