Pope visits Refugee Centre

Yesterday afternoon, the Holy Father Francis paid ​​a private visit to the Astalli Centre, a place of welcome and service dedicated to helping asylum seekers and refugees.  The Centre is administrated by the JRS (Jesuit Refugee Service - Jesuit Service for Refugees), which operates in the centre of Rome, at the Jesu church.

The Pope arrived at the Centre at 3.30pm, while the Centre's clients were sharing a meal.   The Pope made his way on the premises to the canteen, located in the basement, and greeted refugees and volunteers while he was helping to serve the meal. Then he paused in one of the sections of the canteen, enjoying himself and conversing with a dozen people. He then went to spend a short moment of prayer in the chapel of the Centre and moved along an interior corridor to the Jesu church where he participated in a meeting with the various groups affiliated with the Centre: guests, workers, volunteers and friends.  In total, about 500 people were present for this encounter.

In attendance for this meeting were the Cardinal Vicar for Rome, His Eminence, Agostino Vallini and His Excellency, Matthew Zuppi, Auxiliary Bishop of Rome; Jesuit Father Provincial for Italy, Father Carlo Casalone, SJ; Assistant Father General of the Jesuits for Southern Europe, Father Joachin Barrero, SJ and Father Peter Ballis, SJ, head of Jesuit Refugee International.

The Pope was greeted by the director of the Astalli Centre, Father John Lamanna, SJ, and two refugees (Adam from Sudan and Carol from and Syria), and then addressed his speech to those who were present.

With the recitation of a special prayer entitled You like them, composed by the Father General of the Jesuits, Nicolas Alfonso - those in attendance remembered Father Pedro Arrupe, founder of the Jesuit Service for Refugees, who is buried in the Jesu church.  Later, the Pope, accompanied by two of the refugees, placed a bouquet of flowers on the tomb of Father Arupe.

Today's meeting, which was accompanied by songs sung by the Choir of the Centre, was concluded by offering some gifts from refugees and volunteers. The Pope left the Jesu church at around 5:00pm.

Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

to the Refugees and workers at the Astalli Centre 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, good afternoon!

First of all I greet you, men and women refugees. We have just heard Adam and Carol: thank you for your strong, deeply-felt testimonies. Each one of you, dear friends, bears a life history that speaks of the tragedies of war, of conflicts, often linked to international politics. But every one of you bears, above all, a human and religious richness, a richness to be received, not feared. Many of you are Muslims or of other religions; you come from several countries, with different situations. We must not be afraid of differences! Fraternity makes us discover that they are richness, a gift for all! We live fraternity!

Rome! After Lampedusa and the other places of arrival, for many persons our city is the second stage. Often – as we heard – it’s a difficult, extenuating journey; what you face can even be violent – I’m thinking above all of the women, of mothers , who endure this to ensure a future for their children and the hope of a different life for themselves and their family. Rome should be the city that enables you to rediscover the human dimension, to begin to smile again. Instead, how many times here, as in other places, so many people who have international protection in writing on their residence permits, are constrained to live in difficult – sometimes degrading - situations without the possibility of beginning  a fitting life, or thinking of a new future!

Thank you, therefore, to all those, such as this Centre and other ecclesial, public and private services, which work to welcome these persons and to provide them with a plan. Thank you to Father Giovanni and to my fellow Jesuits; to you, workers, volunteers, benefactors who don’t just give things or time, but who try to enter into a relationship with those asking for asylum and with refugees, recognizing them as persons, committed to finding concrete answers  to their needs. Always keep hope alive! Help to recover trust! Show that with welcome and fraternity a window on the future can be opened – more than a window, a door, and even more so if there can be a future! And it’s lovely that those working for the refugees with the Jesuits are Christian men and women and also non-believers or followers of other religions, united in the name of the common good, which for us Christians is an expression of the love of the Father in Christ Jesus. Saint Ignatius of Loyola wanted a space to be made to welcome the poorest in the premises where he had his residence in Rome, and in 1981, Father Arrupe founded the Jesuit Refugee Service, and wanted the Roman headquarters to be in these premises, in the heart of the city. And I think of that spiritual leave of Father Arrupe in Thailand, in fact in a centre for refugees.

Serve, Accompany, Defend: the three words that are the program of work for the Jesuits and their collaborators.

Serve. What does it mean? To serve means to welcome the persons who arrive with care; it means to bend down to one in need and to extend your hand to him, without reservations, without fear, with tenderness and understanding, as Jesus bent down to wash the feet of the Apostles. To serve means to work beside the neediest, to establish with them first of all human relations of closeness to establish bonds of solidarity. Solidarity is often a word that elicits fear from the more developed world. They try not to say it. It’s almost a dirty word for them. But it’s our word! To serve means to recognize and welcome the demands for justice, for hope, and to seek ways together toward a concrete course of liberation.

The poor are also privileged teachers of our knowledge of God; their fragility and simplicity will unmask our egoisms, our false securities, our pretenses of self-sufficiency, and guide us to the experience of the closeness and tenderness of God, to receive His love in our life, His mercy of a Father who with discretion and patient trust takes care of us, of all of us.

From this place of welcome, of meeting and of service I would like you all, all persons who inhabit this diocese of Rome, to ask yourselves this question: do I bend down to one in difficulty or am I afraid to soil my hands? Am I closed in on myself, in my things, or do I notice the one in need of help? Do I just serve myself or am I able to serve others as Christ did, who came to serve to the point of giving his life? Do I look into the eyes of those who ask for justice or do I look the other way so as not to look into their eyes?

Accompany. Over these years, the Astalli Centre has had a journey. In the beginning it offered first reception services: a refectory, a place to sleep, legal aid. Then it learned to accompany persons in their search for work and social integration. And later it proposed cultural activities as well, to contribute to the growth of a culture of welcome, a culture of coming together and of solidarity, beginning with the protection of human rights. Hospitality alone isn’t enough. It’s not enough to give a bun if it isn’t accompanied by the possibility to learn to walk with your own legs. Charity that leaves the poor as they are isn’t enough. True mercy, which God gives and teaches us, calls for justice, for the poor to find the way so that they are no longer poor.  It calls for – and asks us: the Church, us: the city of Rome, the institutions – calls for the day when there will be no one in need of a refectory, of chance lodgings, of legal aid service, to have his right to live and to work recognized, to be fully a person. Adam said: We, refugees, have the duty to do our best to be integrated in Italy. And integration is a right! And Carol said: Syrians in Europe feel the great responsibility not to be a weight; we want to be an active part of a new society. This, too, is a right! Look, this responsibility is the ethical basis; it’s the strength to builds together. I wonder: do we accompany this way?

Defend. To serve and to accompany means also to defend; it means to be on the side of the weakest. How many times we raise our voice to defend our rights, but how many times we are indifferent to the rights of others! How many times we don’t know or do not wish to give voice to the voice of those who – like you – have suffered and suffer, those who have seen their rights trampled upon, those who have lived so much violence that it has suffocated even their desire to have justice!

It’s important for the whole Church that the welcome of the poor and the promotion of justice  are not entrusted only to specialists, but that they focus the attention of all their pastoral activity, of the formation of future priests and Religious, of the normal commitment of all the parishes, Movements and ecclesial groups on welcome and justice. In particular – and this is important and I say it from my heart – in particular I would also like to invite  the Religious Institutes to read seriously and responsibly this sign of the times. The Lord is calling us to live with more courage and generosity the true meaning of welcome in our communities, in homes, in empty convents … Dearest men and women religious, the empty convents are useless to the Church if they are transformed into hotels and earn money. The empty convents aren’t ours; they are for Christ’s flesh, which the refugees are. The Lord calls us to live hospitality with generosity and courage in empty convents. It certainly isn’t something simple; we need criteria, responsibility, but also courage. We do so much, perhaps we are called to do more, welcoming and sharing with determination what Providence has given us to serve; to overcome the temptation of spiritual worldliness to be close to simple persons and especially the least. We are in need of communities of solidarity that live love concretely!

Every day, here and in other centres, so many persons, mostly young people, line up for a hot meal. These people remind us of the suffering and tragedies of humanity. But that line also tells us that it is possible for all of us to do something now. It’s enough to begin by knocking on the door, and trying to say: I’m here. How can I lend a hand?

Greeting of the Holy Father as he left the Astalli Centre
Thank you for your welcome in this house. Thank you! Thank you for your testimony, thanks for the help you continue to give, thank you for your prayers, thank you for your desire, the desire to move forward, to fight and move on. Thanks for defending your, our human dignity. Thanks a lot. May God bless you, everyone!