Vatican envoy urges OSCE: recognize migrants' dignity, fight intolerance-- including anti-Christian bias
June 09, 2016
In an address to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Vatican's representative has said that European policies toward migrants should focus not on their legal status but on their human dignity.
"We are witnessing an extraordinary migration of people fleeing from wars and persecutions, as well as from poverty and exclusion," observed Archbishop Janusz Urbanczyk. He encouraged European policy-makers to recognize the migrants' potential contribution to their host nations-- while also saying that the migrants should obey the laws and respect the heritage of the nations that shelter them.
Archbishop Urbanczyk called attention to "a general rise in racism and intolerance" in Europe. This intolerance is not only directed at Jews and Muslims but also at Christians, he said. "Anti-Christian sentiment appears to be the last acceptable prejudice and seems to receive less attention than other forms of intolerance because of Christianity's position as the principal religion of Europe," he said.
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