Welcoming the stranger : social policy perspectives on asylum seekers in Malta

Abstract

Year 2015 marked the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. In his Bull of Indiction, Pope Francis called upon Catholics to return to the corporal works of mercy, including the welcoming of strangers.Solidarity with refugees has been a recurring theme of his papacy. In his address to the EU Parliament in 2014, for instance, Pope Francis called for a “united response to the question of migration”; he cautioned against allowing “the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery” of people who come to Europe needing “acceptance and assistance.” Likewise, in addressing the US Congress in 2015, Pope Francis exhorted that “We must not be taken aback by their [refugee] numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.”