Pope Francis: ‘No one is exempt’ from helping migrants

Pope Francis on Monday said that no one is exempt from helping migrants following clashes between Italy and migrant rescue ships, Reuters reported.

“The weakest and most vulnerable must be helped,” Francis said at a closed-door mass for migrants. “This is a tremendous responsibility, from which no one is exempt if we wish to fulfill the mission of salvation and liberation, in which the Lord himself has called us to cooperate.”

{mosads}“These least ones (among us) are abandoned and cheated into dying in the desert; these least ones are tortured, abused and violated in detention camps; these least ones face the waves of an unforgiving sea; these least ones are left in reception camps too long for them to be called temporary,” the pope added.

Although Francis did not call out Italy by name, the comments come a month after the government adopted new rules threatening nongovernmental migrant rescue ships.

Italy’s hard-line interior minister Matteo Salvini and the right-wing League Party have led those efforts.