Cardinal Parolin calls for humane treatment of migrants

March 22, 2016

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, traveled to the Republic of Macedonia, where he visited a refugee camp, and to Bulgaria, where he commemorated the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

In Skopje, Mother Teresa’s birthplace, Cardinal Parolin told Macedonian Prime Minister Emil Dimitriev that “refugees should be seen as children, women, adults in a very difficult situation, in need of assistance.”

Cardinal Parolin’s March 18 remarks came less than two weeks after Macedonia closed its borders to migrants attempting to enter the nation from Greece.

In Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, Cardinal Parolin consecrated the renovated cathedral of the Bulgarian Catholic Church, one of the smallest of the Eastern Catholic churches in full communion with the Holy See, before addressing clergy in the city’s Latin-rite cathedral.

 

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Further information:

• Accoglienti verso tutti (L’Osservatore Romano, p. 7)
• Card. Parolin consecrates new Cathedral of Bulgarian Catholic Exarchate of Sofia (Vatican Radio)
• Cardinal Parolin speaks on migrants in visit to Macedonia (Vatican Radio)
• The Bulgarian Catholic Church (CNEWA)