Pope heads to festival under shadow of church attack
KRAK W, Poland: Pope Francis heads to Poland yesterday for an international Catholic youth festival with a mission to encourage openness to migrants made tougher by a jihadist murder of a priest in France.
The Argentine pontiff is flying in to meet youngsters from the world over at a week-long faith extravaganza dubbed “the Catholic Woodstock”, but is expected to tackle the rightwing government over refugee rights before he gets down to prayer.
The brutal killing of an elderly priest during mass in France on Tuesday, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, cast a shadow over festivities among the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gathered in Krakow and increased concerns over security.
It has also made Francis’s task of championing migrants that bit harder, playing into the line held by Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and her rightwing government, who have refused to take in refugees for security reasons.
Francis, 79, will meet Polish President Andrzej Duda in Krakow’s Wawel Castle, before retiring for a question-and-answer session with the country’s bishops behind closed doors in the city’s Cathedral.
The pope, who voiced his ‘pain and horror’ at the “barbaric killing” of the priest, is likely to slam religious violence and the persecution of Christians while warning Europe not to fall prey to xenophobia.
Poland is deploying over 40,000 security personnel for the visit.
True to character, Francis is refusing to bow to security concerns despite a series of terror attacks targeting civilians in Europe, and will hop in his opentop pope-mobile for some legs of the trip.
“World Youth Day is a great celebration and we hope the attack in France will not ruin it,” said Marcin Przeciszewski, head of Catholic Information Agency KAI, as groups of faithful gathered Tuesday to pray for the French cleric. — AFP