In address to Spanish parliament, Pope Leo warns against global polarization and migrant discrimination
Pope Leo told the Spanish parliament that global polarisation and discriminatory policies against migrants constitute "a threat to human dignity." Addressed to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and MPs, the speech drew attention amid the EU's asylum-policy debates and the Vatican's growing diplomatic weight. On the second day of his visit to Madrid the pope visited reception institutions serving asylum-seekers in Toledo.
According to El País, Pope Leo's short but dense speech did not openly criticise recent tightening in European asylum systems but delivered an indirect message by saying that "borders must not turn into walls that erase people." The speech comes in the week in which Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is bringing a migration-budget package before parliament for his coalition. A group of right-wing MPs sat in the audience and chose to remain silent during the address.
Diplomatic sources at the Vatican told El País that Pope Leo had deliberately scheduled his Madrid visit ahead of the next migration debates in Poland, Italy and Hungary. The pope is preparing an audience in Rome for the week the EU Commission's new asylum package will be discussed; European Council president António Costa is also expected to attend. As anticipated, the pope chose not to name any leader or party.
In the afternoon in Toledo, the pope visited a centre run by Caritas Spain and migrant-housing associations and met undocumented migrant workers. The open-air mass in Madrid's embassy district was reported to have drawn around 90,000 people; Spain's interior ministry said security arrangements worked smoothly.
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