Pope Francis Encourages Europe to Welcome Migrant Workers

Pope Francis encouraged European countries to be accepting of immigrants and offer jobs to the unemployed while speaking at an event on Tuesday.

While speaking at the European Parliament and Council of Europe, Francis urged Europe to do away with the "haggard" and outdated perspective that immigrants are not welcome in European countries. Francis also encouraged European leaders to stop making the Mediterranean a "cemetery" for migrant workers.

"A Europe which is no longer open to the transcendent dimension of life is a Europe which risks slowly losing its own soul," the pope said while addressing the European Parliament for the first time.

Francis went on to call on a Europe that "revolves not around the economy but around the sacredness of the human person."

"The time has come to promote policies which create employment, but above all there is a need to restore dignity to labor by ensuring proper working conditions," he continued. "This implies, on the one hand, finding new ways of joining market flexibility with the need for stability and security on the part of workers; these are indispensable for their human development."

Francis has long made the plight of immigrants one of the cornerstones of his papacy. "There needs to be a united response to the question of migration. We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery," Francis stressed.

"The boats landing daily on the shores of Europe are filled with men and women who need acceptance and assistance," he added.