Pope Francis on Wednesday lamented the “stone hearts” of people who he says have not been moved by the suffering of migrants.
Francis made his comments during a visit to a Rome religious landmark, a column bearing a statue of the Madonna, where he prayed for an end to war and climate change as well as for the healing of those who have been infected with COVID-19, according to Reuters.
The Pope also asked during his prayer that the Madonna “melt the stone hearts of those who put up walls to keep other people’s pain away from them,” the news outlet reported.
He also made a plea before a crowd of people during his address for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a national holiday which is celebrated on Dec. 8, focusing on his recent trip to Cyprus and Greece, where the theme was migration.
“Before history and before the faces of those who emigrate, we can’t keep silent, we can’t look the other way,” he said. “Please, let us look into the eyes of the people we meet who have been cast aside, let us allow ourselves to be moved by the faces of the little ones, children of desperate immigrants.”
“Let their suffering be carved into us to shake us out of our indifference. Let us look at their faces to wake us from the sleep of routine,” he added.
During his trip to the Greek island of Lesbos, the pope greeted refugees and acknowledged the exploitation of migrants, calling for a stop to “this shipwreck of civilization.”