VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Mutual fears between immigrants and their new communities are understandable, but must not prevent new arrivals from being welcomed and integrated, Pope Francis said on Sunday in a special Mass to mark the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. Francis, a keen defender of the rights of migrants, was addressing a congregation including migrants and refugees from some 50 countries, whose flags festooned the area around the altar in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. “Local communities are sometimes afraid that the newly arrived will disturb the established order, will ‘steal’ something they have long labored to build up,” he said, while “the newly arrived ... are afraid of confrontation, judgement, discrimination, failure.”“Having doubts and fears is not a sin. Argentina-born Francis, who was the first non-European elected to the post in nearly 1,300 years, has criticized President Donald Trump’s stated intention to build a wall to stop illegal migrants crossing the U.S. border with Mexico. The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics also met Muslim refugees in Myanmar and Bangladesh last year and called for decisive action to solve political problems that cause many to flee.

Source: Huffington Post January 14, 2018 18:22 UTC