On a visit to Dublin, Ireland, Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, called on the international community to create a global family of nations and peoples with a sense of unity and solidarity, especially with the weakest of our brothers and sisters. Noting that “racial and ethnic hatred, intractable conflicts and violence, contempt for human dignity and for fundamental human rights, and the growing divide between rich and poor,” go against the sense of the entire world as a single family, the Pope urged that we never lose hope or the courage to persevere in the moral imperative to be peacemakers, reconcilers and guardians of one another. The growth of a materialistic “throwaway culture”, the Pope noted, has in fact “made us increasingly indifferent to the poor and to the most defenseless members of our human family, including the unborn, deprived of the very right to life.” “Perhaps the most disturbing challenges in this regard today is the massive refugee crisis,” the Pope said and called for a wisdom, breadth of vision and humanitarian concern that go far beyond short-term political decisions.
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