Pope Francis, who consistently called for a world built on fraternity, solidarity and equal dignity for all, is no longer with us. The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) joins people of goodwill everywhere to mourn his loss and to voice determination to keep his legacy of hope alive.

With the death of Pope Francis, refugees have lost an unwavering and passionate defender. From the start of his papacy, he urged and challenged each one of us to take responsibility, to care about the suffering of refugees, to cry over their untimely deaths at our borders and to have the courage to welcome them.

One of his first trips as pope was to Lampedusa in 2013, a tiny island on the deadly migration route in the central Mediterranean. During that landmark visit, Pope Francis deplored the “globalisation of indifference” and made a direct appeal that echoes to this day: “‘Where is your brother?’ His blood cries out to me, says the Lord. This is not a question directed to others; it is a question directed to me, to you, to each of us.”

Lampedusa marked the beginning of a journey that Pope Francis invited us to undertake towards a horizon of “a world of peace, in which we live as brothers and sisters”, stripped of “borders of ignominy” and marked by a culture of hospitality and encounter. He repeatedly evoked the model of the Good Samaritan who displayed a “love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.” His message was simple: as brothers and sisters, we are responsible for one another. Refugees are not a burden disturbing our comfort but part of us, with “faces, names and individual stories.”

Pope Francis led the way with practical gestures and suggestions. Soon after being elected, he met refugees at the JRS soup kitchen in Rome. He urged religious congregations and institutes to open their doors to welcome refugees, saying: “We need communities with solidarity that really put love into practice.” Four verbs became his go-to guide for those who wanted to help – welcome, protect, promote, integrate.

Pope Francis was unflinching in his condemnation of obstacles that impede true fraternity. He begged us not to be afraid of our differences but only of “close-mindedness and prejudice that can prevent us from truly encountering one another.” He warned against narrow preoccupations with personal, community or national identity that defeat shared humanity and underlined “a twisted mind-set that, instead of letting us see ourselves as brothers and sisters, makes us see one another as enemies.”

The pope tirelessly appealed for an end to seemingly inescapable cycles of hatred and violence, affirming that “every violent death diminishes us as people.” His pleas were undergirded by concrete guidelines in his speeches and writings, especially the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, where he laid down a blueprint for how to work for reconciliation, saying: “Truth is an inseparable companion of justice and mercy. All three together are essential to building peace.”

Up to the end of his life’s journey, Pope Francis stood with refugees and exhorted us to do the same. In his letter to the US Bishops about the government’s mass-deportation campaign, he cautioned against giving in to “narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”

In that letter, his last word in defence of refugees sums up his message: “What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.”

Fortified by the words and example of Pope Francis, JRS shall build on his legacy and move forward with others. “In such uncertain times that leave many people in extremely fragile situations, we have become reassured and receive direction by Pope Francis’s testimony: peace can only be built on the recognition of each other’s dignity as human beings, without any further condition. This is the only thing that guarantees a future for us, contrary to the narratives that are built on domination, destruction or exclusion,” says Br. Michael Schöpf, JRS International Director.

JRS remains committed to build an ever “wider ‘we’” to work for “a community that, for all its human limitations, incarnates God’s dream.”

Read more

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