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MADRID: Pope Leo XIV called for a global response to the “tragic drama” of migration and said world peace was a “true global imperative” in an unprecedented address to the Spanish parliament on Monday.
The pope also urged lawmakers to defend life “from conception to its natural end”, in a country whose left-wing government has legalised euthanasia under strict conditions and wants to include abortion rights in the constitution. The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics later on Monday will reportedly meet in private with victims of sexual abuse by clergy, which he has called “an open wound” for the Church.
In his address to parliament, he called for “safe and legal pathways” for immigration and for migrants to be given “a respectful welcome and real opportunities for integration”.
“The tragic drama of migration... challenges the conscience of nations and the ethical foundation of the international order today,” he said. In contrast with many of its European allies, Spain under Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has a relatively liberal immigration policy. But the government is under pressure on the issue from the main conservative Popular Party and from far-right party Vox, now the nation’s third-largest political force.
