A Stranger and You Welcomed Me: A Call to Mercy and Solidarity with Migrants and Refugees

"Solidarity, this word that frightens the developed world. People try to avoid saying it. Solidarity to them is almost a bad word. But it is our word!" — Pope Francis

The plight of migrants and refugees has been a constant and urgent priority for Pope Francis. On his first trip outside of Rome to the Island of Lampedusa, a way station for refugees in the Mediterranean, he spoke of the many who have drowned: "We are a society which has forgotten how to weep, how to expe-rience compassion . ...