Fear and doubt should not determine response to immigrants, Pope says

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 laboured to build up," he said, while "the newly arrived ... are afraid of confrontation, judgement, discrimination, failure." "Having doubts and fears is not a sin.

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