Welcoming immigrants is requirement of charity, justice, pope says

LUXEMBOURG (CNS) -- Animated by a spirit of service, mission and joy, the Catholic Church must be welcoming toward everyone, Pope Francis said.

"The spirit of the Gospel is a spirit of welcoming, of openness to everyone; it does not admit any kind of exclusion," the pope told members of Luxembourg's Catholic community during an afternoon meeting in the city's Cathedral of Notre-Dame Sept. 26.

The pope encouraged the church in the small, predominantly Catholic country to "continue to make your country a friendly home for those who knock at your door seeking help and hospitality."

The population of Luxembourg is made up of about 47% foreigners and 53% Luxembourgers, Gérard Kieffer, head of communications for the Archdiocese of Luxembourg, told Catholic News Service in mid-September. With a population of about 654,000, many people from very different backgrounds "live together harmoniously," he said.

About 41% of the population identifies as Catholic, especially the large number of residents who are of Portuguese origin or descent.

Welcoming others is "very urgent today" and is "a requirement of charity but is foremost a matter of justice," he said. "Thank you to the government and the people of Luxembourg for what you do for migrants."

The pope said the church must be ready to "evolve, mature and grow," specifically by facing the challenge of increasing secularization with missionary zeal, sharing responsibilities and ministries and "making synodality a lasting way to relate among its members."

Among the faithful sharing their experience of church life, Christine Busshardt, vice president of the diocesan pastoral council, told the pope that many parishioners, priests and religious are ready to take on the needed "co-responsibility" of evangelization.

"Many do not feel they are being treated equally and have buried the talents entrusted to them," she said.

During the meeting the pope also venerated a statue of Our Lady of Luxembourg, also referred to as "Comforter of the Afflicted," a devotion that was introduced to Luxembourg by the Jesuits in 1624. The pope gave a golden rose as a gift to celebrate its 400th anniversary.

After lunch and before he went to the cathedral, Pope Francis and members of his security detail stopped at Gruppetto, a small coffee shop, for an espresso. "It was incredible," Jassin, the barista, told the Luxembourg newspaper Le Quotidien.

The pope began his 46th apostolic journey abroad with an appeal to the small nation in the heart of Europe to play an important role on the world stage by promoting peace. He addressed some 300 representatives of the diplomatic corps and local authorities, including Luxembourg's Prime Minister Luc Frieden and its Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, after arriving from Rome early Sept. 26.

"It seems that the human heart does not always remember the past and periodically goes astray and returns to the tragic path of war," he said in his speech at the meeting held at the city's main administrative building, the Cercle Cité.

"To heal this dangerous syndrome, which causes nations to become seriously ill and risks throwing them into exploits that bring with them immense human costs and further useless massacres, we need to raise our gaze upward," he said, calling on citizens and leaders to be "motivated by noble and profound spiritual values."

Those who hold positions of authority, he said, urgently need to engage "resolutely and patiently in honest negotiations in order to resolve differences, together with a willingness to find honorable compromises, which undermine nothing and can instead build security and peace for all."

The pope later rode through the city before boarding the plane for Belgium, where he was to spend the next three days meeting with authorities, local Catholics and staff and students of KU Leuven, the world's oldest Catholic university, which was celebrating its 600th anniversary.