“Open the Vatican to Refugees”

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Very little of what Pope Francis says is coherent with his actions. While he travels the world preaching to people about justice and solidarity, there is little of those two qualities to be found in his actions, at least not with the same intensity as in his speeches. Pope Francis has managed to alarm the most conservative segment of Christianity and Catholicism due to the content of his message. In most cases, his speeches contradict long kept beliefs and traditions of the Christian faith. However, his opinions and his “new” doctrine have not surprised his followers as much as his hypocrisy. The “Pope of the people”, as all other Popes that came before him, has limited his influence to speaking about change, instead of acting upon his own words. On many social and political issues, Pope Francis has sided with the political and economic elites by supporting hoaxes such as global warming and calling for a New World Order. The Pope has missed opportunity after opportunity to vindicate himself and to make his message effective. This month, Francis will visit the United States to speak at the United Nations and the U.S. Congress, a move that many critics see as evidence of a Pope that is open to rubbing his shoulders with the elite, not to advocate for the poor and needy, but to show support for globalism. A new opportunity to gain credibility If for many people, especially those inside the Catholic church, Francis has been discredited by his “do as I say, not as I do” modus operandi, for others, it is up to the Pope himself to vindicate his positions and to lead by example. The XXXV Theology Congress organized by the John XXIII Association appreciates the sensitivity that Pope Francis has shown towards immigrants and refugees and their complaints against the lack of solidarity in Europe, so they have asked him, “for consistency,”. Theologians have asked the Pope to open the gates of the Vatican State to all refugees. According to the association, only by opening the doors of the Vatican will the Pope give “credibility  to his allegations.” This statement was one of the conclusions of the meeting held between from September 10-12, which was used to reflected about religions, violence and the ways of peace. Participants in the meeting talked about ways to combat the neoliberal “unjust and violent” economic model, to assist in the integration of immigrants and refugees with the organizations involved and to open the doors of their homes and communities to migrants. They called for the military disarmament of States and the “moral rearmament” through cooperation with the South, solidarity, receiving all immigrants, refugees and those displaced by hunger, religious intolerance and political persecution. In this line, they ask their leaders to eliminate religious boundaries that separate and avoid the transmission of messages and examples of solidarity, overcome inbreeding and develop a “macro-ecumenism model that opposes violence and that promotes hospitality and the struggle for justice.” Participants also denounced that armed conflicts and violence from governments and terrorist organizations are causing deaths, damaging nature, removing ancient culture from the present, and causing mass exoduses and persecution of minorities. In some of these conflicts, religions have a “major, sometimes decisive” role, and become “a source of violence” or, at least, a justification. The most extreme type of violence is that of gender, they say, a “permanent instrument of power and domination of patriarchy against women.” According to these theologians, Catholic institutions have been accomplices of crimes against children who have been “stolen with the direct complicity of the Church.” They also highlighted the violence against homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals. “The Catholic hierarchy, however, far from condemning the patriarchal and homophobic violence tends to stay silent. The hierarchy exercises this oppression against women and sexual minorities by denying them access to the ordained ministry, excluding them from areas of responsibility, denying them the sexual and reproductive rights and imposing a repressive morality. “ By contrast, the association proposes a religious change that recognizes the equality of men and women in all areas of religious life and recognition of different sexual, ethnic, cultural and religious identities, dialogue, peace culture and hospitality. “Only then will religions stop being sources of violence and become the way of peace.”

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