Pope Francis apologises to the Roma people for the Catholic Church’s ‘discrimination’ against them as he tells 60,000 worshippers that his ‘heart is heavy’ during a mass in Blaj
- Move may increase tensions with Italy’s anti-immigrant Minister Matteo Salvini
- Francis made the comment at the last event of his three day trip to Romania
- Roma people are the biggest ethnic minority in Europe and rights groups say they are often the victims of prejudice and social exclusion
Pope Francis on Sunday asked forgiveness in the name of the Catholic Church for the mistreatment of the Roma people, a move likely to increase tensions with Italy’s anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
Francis made the comment during a meeting with Roma people at the last event of his three day trip to Romania, saying his heart was made ‘heavy’ by the meeting.
‘It is weighed down by the many experiences of discrimination, segregation and mistreatment experienced by your communities. History tells us that Christians too, including Catholics, are not strangers to such evil,’ he said.
Pope Francis on Sunday asked forgiveness in the name of the Catholic Church for the mistreatment of the Roma people. Pictured: Pope Francis attends a divine liturgy on June 2, 2019 at the liberty field in Blaj
With an estimated population of 10-12 million, approximately six million of whom live in the European Union, Roma people are the biggest ethnic minority in Europe and rights groups say they are often the victims of prejudice and social exclusion.
Salvini, who has clashed with the pope repeatedly on migration issues, reacted angrily last month when Francis received a group of Roma at the Vatican last month.
Salvini, head of the far-right Lega party and a deputy prime minister, responded by repeating his promise to close all Roma camps in Italy.
‘I would like to ask your forgiveness for this,’ the pope told the Roma. ‘I ask forgiveness – in the name of the Church and of the Lord – and I ask forgiveness of you. For all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you …’.
Pope Francis is welcomed before a meeting with members of the Roma community in the Barbu Lautaru district of Blaj, Romania today
After World War Two, Romania’s Communist authorities confiscated properties of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church and ordered its members to join the majority Orthodox Church
Many Catholic properties taken by the Communist dictatorship or given by the government to the Orthodox have yet to be returned 30 years after the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Pictured: Pope Francis delivers a speech to the Roma community in the Barbu Lautaru district of Blaj, Romania
Pictured: Pope Francis delivers a speech to the Roma community in the Barbu Lautaru district of Blaj, Romania
Pope Francis spent three-days in Romania from 31 May to 02 June 2019
A Roma youth, Razaila Vasile Dorin, told reporters: ‘It’s an honour that a person like the pope comes to our community. We are proud.’
‘It’s important that the pope is asking forgiveness. There is racism in every country. When we go out everyone looks at us and we don’t like that. I am proud to be a gypsy.’
Earlier on Sunday, the pope said a Mass for some 100,000 people during which he beatified seven Communist-era bishops of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church who died in prison or as a result of their harsh treatment during Romania’s communist era.
‘(The bishops) endured suffering and gave their lives to oppose an illiberal ideological system that oppressed the fundamental rights of the human person,’ Francis said.
Pope Francis blessing a boy during a meeting with members of the Roma community in Blaj, Romania
Pope Francis meets with members of the Roma community in the Barbu Lautaru district of Blaj, Romania, June 2
Pope Francis blessing children during a meeting with members of the Roma community in Blaj, Romania
After World War Two, Romania’s Communist authorities confiscated properties of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church and ordered its members to join the majority Orthodox Church, which was easier for the party to control.
Historians say about half a million Romanians including politicians, priests, doctors, officers, land owners and merchants were sentenced and jailed in the 1950s and early 1960s and a fifth of them perished in prisons and labour camps.
Many Catholic properties taken by the Communist dictatorship or given by the government to the Orthodox have yet to be returned 30 years after the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Francis’s arrival in Blaj to wind up his visit was part of his attempt at inclusiveness on his three-day visit to one of what remains Europe’s poorest states.
Although Romania has developed apace since obtaining EU membership in 2007 there remain some ‘urban or rural ghettos where nothing has changed,’ according to sociologist Gelu Duminica, who heads the anti-discrimination Impreuna (Together) association.
Duminica and others in Blaj saw it as no coincidence that Francis, often seen as a defender of the rights of the most marginalised, chose the Barbu Lautaru district of Blaj, whose inhabitants are mainly Roma, to launch his appeal for tolerance and social inclusion.
‘The pope’s visit is a message for those who are marginalised, disregarded or not accepted by others,’ said Mihai Gherghel, an eastern Catholic priest, who supervised the construction of the Blaj church where Francis celebrated Sunday mass.
The pontiff visit takes place 20 years after Pope St. John Paul II’s historic visit to Romania, having the motto ‘Let’s Walk Together’
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