In democracy’s birthplace, pope warns of populist threats
By NICOLE WINFIELD and DEREK GATOPOULOS
1 of 20
Migrants on Lesbos hope pope will 'take their voice to world'
The island became a symbol of the migrant crisis when thousands of migrants landed on the popular holiday island in 2015 (AFP/Louisa GOULIAMAKI)
Marina RAFENBERG
Sat, December 4, 2021,
Ahead of the pope's landmark visit to Greece, around 20 asylum-seekers from Mavrovouni camp were permitted to attend mass at Lesbos' sole Catholic church, socially distancing inside to worship together.
Christian Tango, a 31-year-old Congolese worshipper said Saturday he "hopes the pope will take (refugees') voices to the world," as he entered Our Lady of the Assumption, built in 1843 by French Franciscans.
Like his fellow asylum-seekers on Lesbos, Tango is permitted to leave the camp just once a week but this week will exceptionally be allowed out twice, in order to meet Pope Francis on Sunday.
"The pope knows the reality of refugees very well, much better than European politicians and leaders," said the refugee, who lost his wife and eight-year-old daughter during his perilous journey to Greece.
Greek authorities have deployed 850 police officers to the island, strictly controlled access even to journalists and replaced 93 tents with shipping containers equipped with mains electricity.
The island became a symbol of the migrant crisis when thousands of migrants landed on the popular holiday island in 2015.
"Tomorrow is the best day of my life, I never thought that one day I would have the opportunity to see the Pope with my own eyes," said Berthe N'Goyo, a Cameroonian who arrived three months ago and is one of 10 migrants who will sing for the pontiff.
- 'Gathered in your love' -
"We are gathered in your love," she sang.
"Faith allows me to move forward, and to overcome all the trials of my life, the exile, the voyage during which my boat overturned in the middle of the sea, the uncertainty of the future," she said.
The pope has made the plight of migrants in Europe a central theme of his visit to Greece.
"I hope that the Pope will carry our voice to the whole world and in particular to the European countries that must welcome refugees with more humanity," said Christian.
His two daughters, aged six and seven, rehearsed alongside other children a song in Lingala.
"Don't be afraid of us, my friend, because we are refugees," they sang.
Enice Kiaku, who has already spent two years on Lesbos, hopes that the Pope will be able to take her off the island.
"The conditions are very difficult in the camp, I am alone with two children," said the Congolese woman, who said she had "lost hope" her situation would improve.
During his previous visit in April 2016, Francis took twelve Syrian refugees back to the Vatican.
Far fewer migrants are now reaching Lesbos than in recent years and are accommodated in a hastily built site after the infamous Moria migrant camp, Europe's largest, was burnt down in September 2020.
mr/chv/gw/har
By NICOLE WINFIELD and DEREK GATOPOULOS
1 of 20
Pope Francis delivers his speech during a meeting with authorities, at the Presidential Palace, in Athens, Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. Pope Francis arrived to Greece Saturday for the second leg of his trip to the region with meetings in Athens aimed at bolstering recently-mended ties between the Vatican and Orthodox churches. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis, Pool)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Pope Francis warned Saturday that the “easy answers” of populism and authoritarianism are threatening democracy in Europe and called for fresh dedication to promoting the common good rather than narrow, nationalist interests.
Arriving in Greece, the birthplace of democracy, Francis used a speech to Greek political and cultural leaders to warn Europe at large about the threats facing the continent. He said only robust multilateralism can address the pressing issues of the day, from protecting the environment to fighting the pandemic and poverty.
“Politics needs this, in order to put common needs ahead of private interests,” Francis said. “Yet we cannot avoid noting with concern how today, and not only in Europe, we are witnessing a retreat from democracy.”
Francis, who lived through Argentina’s populist Peronist era as well as its military dictatorship, has frequently warned about the threat of authoritarianism and populism and the danger it poses to the European Union and democracy itself.
He didn’t name any specific countries or leaders during his speech. The EU, however, is locked in a feud with members Poland and Hungary over rule-of-law issues, with Warsaw insisting that Polish law takes precedence over EU policies and regulations.
Coincidentally, on the same day Francis warned about the populist threat to Europe, right-wing populist leaders met in Warsaw and declared they will work more closely together to defend their sovereignty at the European Parliament.
Outside the bloc, populist leaders in Brazil and the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump pressed nationalist policies on the environment that contrasted sharply with Francis’ call to care for “our common home.”
Opening the second leg of his five-day trip to Cyprus and Greece, Francis recalled that it was in Greece, according to Aristotle, that man became conscious of being a “political animal” and a member of a community of fellow citizens.
“Here, democracy was born,” Francis told Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou. “That cradle, thousands of years later, was to become a house, a great house of democratic peoples. I am speaking of the European Union and the dream of peace and fraternity that it represents for so many peoples.”
That dream is at risk amid the economic upheaval and other disruptions of the pandemic that can breed nationalist sentiments and make authoritarianism seem “compelling and populism’s easy answers appear attractive,” Francis said.
“The remedy is not to be found in an obsessive quest for popularity, in a thirst for visibility, in a flurry of unrealistic promises ... but in good politics,” he said.
Francis praised the “necessary vaccination campaign” promoted by governments to tame the coronavirus. He referenced another Greek doctor-philosopher — Hippocrates — in response to vaccine skeptics and virus deniers, who count many religious conservatives among them. Francis cited the Hippocratic oath to not only do what is best for the sick, but to “abstain from whatever is harmful and offensive to others,” especially the elderly.
Greece’s president echoed the sentiment. “The virus spreads and mutates, helped by the irrational denial of reality and inequalities in our societies,” Sakellaropoulou said.
Greece is grappling with its highest level of coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic, with deaths approaching record levels. A quarter of the country’s adults remain unvaccinated, and Parliament recently approved a vaccine mandate for people over age 60.
Francis’ trip has been clouded by the Dec. 2 death of the Vatican’s ambassador to the European Union, Archbishop Aldo Giordano, among several prelates who tested positive for COVID-19 after celebrating Francis’ final Mass in Slovakia in September. The Vatican’s EU embassy insisted that Giordano caught the virus days earlier during a European bishops’ meeting in Hungary.
Francis’ visit to Cyprus and Greece also has focused on the plight of migrants as Europe hardens its border control policies. On Sunday he is returning to the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, which he visited five years ago to meet with migrants at a detention camp.
In Athens, Francis is also met with Archbishop Ieronymos, the head of Greece’s Orthodox Church.
In 2001, Pope John Paul II became the first Catholic leader to visit Greece in more than 1,200 years and he used the occasion to beg forgiveness for the sins “by action or omission” of Catholics against Orthodox over the centuries. Francis’ visit 20 years later sought to further mend Catholic-Orthodox ties, still wounded by the Great Schism that divided Christianity.
Ieronymos told Francis on Saturday that he shared the pope’s vision to forge strong ties to face global challenges like the migration crisis and climate change.
“If the world community, the leaders of powerful states, and international organizations do not take bold decisions, the ever-threatening presence of vulnerable refugee women and children will continue to grow globally,” Ieronymos warned.
An elderly Orthodox priest heckled Francis as he arrived at Ieronymos’ residence, shouting: “Pope you are a heretic!” before police hustled him away.
Francis has accelerated inter-faith initiatives, as the two churches attempt to shift from centuries of competition and mistrust toward collaboration. Orthodox churches are also seeking alliances amid a deepening dispute over the independence of the Ukrainian church, which was historically governed by the Russian Orthodox Church.
“I think the presence of the pope in Greece and Cyprus signals a return to the normal relationship that we should have ... so that we can move toward what is most important of all: the unity of the Christian world,” Ioannis Panagiotopoulos, an associate professor of divinity and church history at Athens University, told The Associated Press.
The pope’s visit ends Monday.
___
Theodora Tongas in Athens contributed. ___ Follow Winfield at https://twitter.com/nwinfield and Gatopoulos at https://twitter.com/dgatopoulos
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Pope Francis warned Saturday that the “easy answers” of populism and authoritarianism are threatening democracy in Europe and called for fresh dedication to promoting the common good rather than narrow, nationalist interests.
Arriving in Greece, the birthplace of democracy, Francis used a speech to Greek political and cultural leaders to warn Europe at large about the threats facing the continent. He said only robust multilateralism can address the pressing issues of the day, from protecting the environment to fighting the pandemic and poverty.
“Politics needs this, in order to put common needs ahead of private interests,” Francis said. “Yet we cannot avoid noting with concern how today, and not only in Europe, we are witnessing a retreat from democracy.”
Francis, who lived through Argentina’s populist Peronist era as well as its military dictatorship, has frequently warned about the threat of authoritarianism and populism and the danger it poses to the European Union and democracy itself.
He didn’t name any specific countries or leaders during his speech. The EU, however, is locked in a feud with members Poland and Hungary over rule-of-law issues, with Warsaw insisting that Polish law takes precedence over EU policies and regulations.
Coincidentally, on the same day Francis warned about the populist threat to Europe, right-wing populist leaders met in Warsaw and declared they will work more closely together to defend their sovereignty at the European Parliament.
Outside the bloc, populist leaders in Brazil and the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump pressed nationalist policies on the environment that contrasted sharply with Francis’ call to care for “our common home.”
Opening the second leg of his five-day trip to Cyprus and Greece, Francis recalled that it was in Greece, according to Aristotle, that man became conscious of being a “political animal” and a member of a community of fellow citizens.
“Here, democracy was born,” Francis told Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou. “That cradle, thousands of years later, was to become a house, a great house of democratic peoples. I am speaking of the European Union and the dream of peace and fraternity that it represents for so many peoples.”
That dream is at risk amid the economic upheaval and other disruptions of the pandemic that can breed nationalist sentiments and make authoritarianism seem “compelling and populism’s easy answers appear attractive,” Francis said.
“The remedy is not to be found in an obsessive quest for popularity, in a thirst for visibility, in a flurry of unrealistic promises ... but in good politics,” he said.
Francis praised the “necessary vaccination campaign” promoted by governments to tame the coronavirus. He referenced another Greek doctor-philosopher — Hippocrates — in response to vaccine skeptics and virus deniers, who count many religious conservatives among them. Francis cited the Hippocratic oath to not only do what is best for the sick, but to “abstain from whatever is harmful and offensive to others,” especially the elderly.
Greece’s president echoed the sentiment. “The virus spreads and mutates, helped by the irrational denial of reality and inequalities in our societies,” Sakellaropoulou said.
Greece is grappling with its highest level of coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic, with deaths approaching record levels. A quarter of the country’s adults remain unvaccinated, and Parliament recently approved a vaccine mandate for people over age 60.
Francis’ trip has been clouded by the Dec. 2 death of the Vatican’s ambassador to the European Union, Archbishop Aldo Giordano, among several prelates who tested positive for COVID-19 after celebrating Francis’ final Mass in Slovakia in September. The Vatican’s EU embassy insisted that Giordano caught the virus days earlier during a European bishops’ meeting in Hungary.
Francis’ visit to Cyprus and Greece also has focused on the plight of migrants as Europe hardens its border control policies. On Sunday he is returning to the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, which he visited five years ago to meet with migrants at a detention camp.
In Athens, Francis is also met with Archbishop Ieronymos, the head of Greece’s Orthodox Church.
In 2001, Pope John Paul II became the first Catholic leader to visit Greece in more than 1,200 years and he used the occasion to beg forgiveness for the sins “by action or omission” of Catholics against Orthodox over the centuries. Francis’ visit 20 years later sought to further mend Catholic-Orthodox ties, still wounded by the Great Schism that divided Christianity.
Ieronymos told Francis on Saturday that he shared the pope’s vision to forge strong ties to face global challenges like the migration crisis and climate change.
“If the world community, the leaders of powerful states, and international organizations do not take bold decisions, the ever-threatening presence of vulnerable refugee women and children will continue to grow globally,” Ieronymos warned.
An elderly Orthodox priest heckled Francis as he arrived at Ieronymos’ residence, shouting: “Pope you are a heretic!” before police hustled him away.
Francis has accelerated inter-faith initiatives, as the two churches attempt to shift from centuries of competition and mistrust toward collaboration. Orthodox churches are also seeking alliances amid a deepening dispute over the independence of the Ukrainian church, which was historically governed by the Russian Orthodox Church.
“I think the presence of the pope in Greece and Cyprus signals a return to the normal relationship that we should have ... so that we can move toward what is most important of all: the unity of the Christian world,” Ioannis Panagiotopoulos, an associate professor of divinity and church history at Athens University, told The Associated Press.
The pope’s visit ends Monday.
___
Theodora Tongas in Athens contributed. ___ Follow Winfield at https://twitter.com/nwinfield and Gatopoulos at https://twitter.com/dgatopoulos
Francis hits out at EU migration divisions at start of Greek visit
Pope Francis arrives in Athens for the first papal visit to the Greek capital since 2001
Pope Francis arrives in Athens for the first papal visit to the Greek capital since 2001
(AFP/ARIS MESSINIS)
Clement Melki, Alexandros Kottis and John Hadoulis
Sat, December 4, 2021
Pope Francis on Saturday blamed the EU's nationalist divisions for a lack of coordination on migration as he began a landmark trip to Greece, aiming to improve complicated relations with the country's Orthodox Church.
Francis said that Europe was "torn by nationalist egoism" on migration during a meeting with EU vice-president Margaritis Schinas, Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, among other officials.
The European community "continues to temporise" and "appears at times blocked and uncoordinated" instead of being an "engine of solidarity" on migration, the pope said.
The 84-year-old's visit to the Greek capital is the first by a pope since John Paul II in 2001, which in turn was the first papal visit to Athens since the 1054 Schism between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
Meeting with the head of the Orthodox Church of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos II, Francis stressed the "common roots" of the two churches and followed John Paul in asking for forgiveness "for the mistakes committed by many Catholics."
"We must continue this dialogue in truth and love," Ieronymos had said earlier.
Speaking to members of Greece's small Catholic community, which represent just 1.2 percent of the majority-Orthodox population, Francis urged them not to lose faith.
"Being a minority... does not mean being insignificant," he said.
- Return to Lesbos -
Francis has long championed refugees, and on Sunday will return to the island of Lesbos, which he last visited in 2016 during the early years of the migration crisis.
Flying in after a two-day trip to Cyprus, the pope landed shortly after 0900 GMT in the Greek capital, where security was heightened over expected protests by Orthodox hardliners among whom anti-papal sentiment remains strong.
Up to 2,000 police are deployed in Athens to monitor possible disruptions by Orthodox hardliners, who blame the Catholics for the Schism and the 1204 sacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.
Reciprocal excommunications exchanged between the two churches after the Schism were only lifted in 1965.
Authorities have banned protests in the Athens centre.
Outside the archbishopric offices where Francis was meeting Ieronymos, police escorted away an elderly Greek priest who was calling the pope a "heretic".
Relations with the Church of Greece are much better than they were ahead of John Paul's visit, Pierre Salembier, head of the Jesuit Catholic community in Greece, told AFP.
But he said there were still some "known anti-Catholic fanatics" within the Church's governing body.
The bishop of Piraeus called the pope's visit "immoral", according to the union of Orthodox journalists.
Francis flies back to Rome on Monday.
- 'Open arms' -
During his visit to Cyprus, Francis condemned "slavery" and "torture" in migrant camps, drawing parallels with World War II.
The Cyprus government said Friday that 50 migrants, including two Cameroonians stuck for months in the divided island's buffer zone, will be relocated to Italy thanks to Francis.
On Sunday the pope will again visit Greece's Lesbos, a flashpoint of the 2015 refugee crisis and thereafter, "as a pilgrim to the wellsprings of humanity" to call for the integration of refugees.
The island's sprawling Moria migrant camp, which the pontiff visited in 2016, burnt down last year and has been replaced by the temporary facility of Mavrovouni.
With EU funds, Greece is building a series of "closed" facilities on Greek islands with barbed wire fencing, surveillance cameras, X-ray scanners and magnetic gates that are closed at night.
NGOs and aid groups have raised concerns about the new camps, arguing that people's movements should not be restricted.
Thirty-six groups active in Greece this week wrote to Francis raising the plight of people in the camps and requesting his help to halt illegal pushbacks of migrants allegedly by Greek border officers.
Greece vehemently denies the claims, insisting its coastguard saves lives at sea.
Addressing Francis on Saturday, President Sakellaropoulou insisted Athens "is making every possible effort to prevent the illegal traffic of people and their political exploitation".
The pontiff is expected to visit the camp and will meet two "randomly chosen" families, an official said.
"We await him with open arms," said Berthe, a Cameroonian asylum seeker at the camp.
She said she hoped the pope "will pray for us to help us overcome the insecurities we have lived, through faith".
On Wednesday, nearly 30 asylum-seekers landed near the camp. On Friday, two migrants died when a speedboat overturned near the Greek island of Kos.
cmk-ak-jph/har
Clement Melki, Alexandros Kottis and John Hadoulis
Sat, December 4, 2021
Pope Francis on Saturday blamed the EU's nationalist divisions for a lack of coordination on migration as he began a landmark trip to Greece, aiming to improve complicated relations with the country's Orthodox Church.
Francis said that Europe was "torn by nationalist egoism" on migration during a meeting with EU vice-president Margaritis Schinas, Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, among other officials.
The European community "continues to temporise" and "appears at times blocked and uncoordinated" instead of being an "engine of solidarity" on migration, the pope said.
The 84-year-old's visit to the Greek capital is the first by a pope since John Paul II in 2001, which in turn was the first papal visit to Athens since the 1054 Schism between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
Meeting with the head of the Orthodox Church of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos II, Francis stressed the "common roots" of the two churches and followed John Paul in asking for forgiveness "for the mistakes committed by many Catholics."
"We must continue this dialogue in truth and love," Ieronymos had said earlier.
Speaking to members of Greece's small Catholic community, which represent just 1.2 percent of the majority-Orthodox population, Francis urged them not to lose faith.
"Being a minority... does not mean being insignificant," he said.
- Return to Lesbos -
Francis has long championed refugees, and on Sunday will return to the island of Lesbos, which he last visited in 2016 during the early years of the migration crisis.
Flying in after a two-day trip to Cyprus, the pope landed shortly after 0900 GMT in the Greek capital, where security was heightened over expected protests by Orthodox hardliners among whom anti-papal sentiment remains strong.
Up to 2,000 police are deployed in Athens to monitor possible disruptions by Orthodox hardliners, who blame the Catholics for the Schism and the 1204 sacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.
Reciprocal excommunications exchanged between the two churches after the Schism were only lifted in 1965.
Authorities have banned protests in the Athens centre.
Outside the archbishopric offices where Francis was meeting Ieronymos, police escorted away an elderly Greek priest who was calling the pope a "heretic".
Relations with the Church of Greece are much better than they were ahead of John Paul's visit, Pierre Salembier, head of the Jesuit Catholic community in Greece, told AFP.
But he said there were still some "known anti-Catholic fanatics" within the Church's governing body.
The bishop of Piraeus called the pope's visit "immoral", according to the union of Orthodox journalists.
Francis flies back to Rome on Monday.
- 'Open arms' -
During his visit to Cyprus, Francis condemned "slavery" and "torture" in migrant camps, drawing parallels with World War II.
The Cyprus government said Friday that 50 migrants, including two Cameroonians stuck for months in the divided island's buffer zone, will be relocated to Italy thanks to Francis.
On Sunday the pope will again visit Greece's Lesbos, a flashpoint of the 2015 refugee crisis and thereafter, "as a pilgrim to the wellsprings of humanity" to call for the integration of refugees.
The island's sprawling Moria migrant camp, which the pontiff visited in 2016, burnt down last year and has been replaced by the temporary facility of Mavrovouni.
With EU funds, Greece is building a series of "closed" facilities on Greek islands with barbed wire fencing, surveillance cameras, X-ray scanners and magnetic gates that are closed at night.
NGOs and aid groups have raised concerns about the new camps, arguing that people's movements should not be restricted.
Thirty-six groups active in Greece this week wrote to Francis raising the plight of people in the camps and requesting his help to halt illegal pushbacks of migrants allegedly by Greek border officers.
Greece vehemently denies the claims, insisting its coastguard saves lives at sea.
Addressing Francis on Saturday, President Sakellaropoulou insisted Athens "is making every possible effort to prevent the illegal traffic of people and their political exploitation".
The pontiff is expected to visit the camp and will meet two "randomly chosen" families, an official said.
"We await him with open arms," said Berthe, a Cameroonian asylum seeker at the camp.
She said she hoped the pope "will pray for us to help us overcome the insecurities we have lived, through faith".
On Wednesday, nearly 30 asylum-seekers landed near the camp. On Friday, two migrants died when a speedboat overturned near the Greek island of Kos.
cmk-ak-jph/har
Migrants on Lesbos hope pope will 'take their voice to world'
The island became a symbol of the migrant crisis when thousands of migrants landed on the popular holiday island in 2015 (AFP/Louisa GOULIAMAKI)
Marina RAFENBERG
Sat, December 4, 2021,
Ahead of the pope's landmark visit to Greece, around 20 asylum-seekers from Mavrovouni camp were permitted to attend mass at Lesbos' sole Catholic church, socially distancing inside to worship together.
Christian Tango, a 31-year-old Congolese worshipper said Saturday he "hopes the pope will take (refugees') voices to the world," as he entered Our Lady of the Assumption, built in 1843 by French Franciscans.
Like his fellow asylum-seekers on Lesbos, Tango is permitted to leave the camp just once a week but this week will exceptionally be allowed out twice, in order to meet Pope Francis on Sunday.
"The pope knows the reality of refugees very well, much better than European politicians and leaders," said the refugee, who lost his wife and eight-year-old daughter during his perilous journey to Greece.
Greek authorities have deployed 850 police officers to the island, strictly controlled access even to journalists and replaced 93 tents with shipping containers equipped with mains electricity.
The island became a symbol of the migrant crisis when thousands of migrants landed on the popular holiday island in 2015.
"Tomorrow is the best day of my life, I never thought that one day I would have the opportunity to see the Pope with my own eyes," said Berthe N'Goyo, a Cameroonian who arrived three months ago and is one of 10 migrants who will sing for the pontiff.
- 'Gathered in your love' -
"We are gathered in your love," she sang.
"Faith allows me to move forward, and to overcome all the trials of my life, the exile, the voyage during which my boat overturned in the middle of the sea, the uncertainty of the future," she said.
The pope has made the plight of migrants in Europe a central theme of his visit to Greece.
"I hope that the Pope will carry our voice to the whole world and in particular to the European countries that must welcome refugees with more humanity," said Christian.
His two daughters, aged six and seven, rehearsed alongside other children a song in Lingala.
"Don't be afraid of us, my friend, because we are refugees," they sang.
Enice Kiaku, who has already spent two years on Lesbos, hopes that the Pope will be able to take her off the island.
"The conditions are very difficult in the camp, I am alone with two children," said the Congolese woman, who said she had "lost hope" her situation would improve.
During his previous visit in April 2016, Francis took twelve Syrian refugees back to the Vatican.
Far fewer migrants are now reaching Lesbos than in recent years and are accommodated in a hastily built site after the infamous Moria migrant camp, Europe's largest, was burnt down in September 2020.
mr/chv/gw/har
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