FRANCIS SAYS REFUGEE SITES ‘CONCENTRATION CAMPS’
ROME— Pope Francis on Saturday described some of Europe’s refugee centers as “concentration camps” as he paid tribute to an unknown Christian woman slain for her faith in front of her Muslim husband in one of the camps. “These refugee camps—so many are concentration camps, crowded with people because international accords man promptuseem rights,”more remarks importantFrancis at said a than ceremo-in im- huny Christianin memory martyrs.of modern-day Departing from his prepared usually script emotionaland appearingas he spoke, unthe 80-year-old pontiff said he wanted membered the along woman with to all be therein other martyrs commemorated Rome’s Basilica of St Bartholomew. He revealed that he had met the woman’s husband and their three children during his visit year. Greek to islanda refugeeof camp Lesbos on last the “I do not know what happened to him, if he managed to get out of his concentration camp and get to somewhere else,” Francis said. “He looked at me and said ‘Father, I am a Muslim and my wife was a Christian. In our country we were terrorized. They saw her crucifix and they asked her to throw it away." “When she refused they cut her throat in front of my eyes. We loved each other so much.” Francis did not reveal the man’s nationality but most of the migrants in Lesbos at the time of his visit were refugees from the conflict in Syria and he returned to Rome with three families who had fled the conflict there. They have since begun new lives in Rome and the pope met on Saturday with other refugees brought to Europe by legal routes under the auspices of the Sant’Egidio community. He told them all that Europe needed to be infected by the generous spirit toward migrants that has been shown by the people of Lesbos and the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Sicily. “We live in a civilization that is not having children, but also closes its door to migrants. This is called suicide,” he said. “Let us think about the cruelty afflicting so many people, about the exploitation of those arriving on boats." Saturday’s service at the Basilica located on an island in the Tiber River that separates most of Rome from the Vatican, was also addressed movingly by Roselyne Hamel. She is the sister of Jacques Hamel, the 85-year-old priest murdered by jihadists last year as he was celebrating Mass in his church in Normandy in northern France.