Pope says abuse of migrants ‘makes one cry’ as he visits Turin Shroud

Pope Francis said on Sunday the mistreatment of migrants escaping war and injustice “makes one cry” as he visited the northern Italian city of Turin, stopping to pray before an icon some Christians believe is Jesus’ burial cloth. The Church has not taken an official position, saying the mysterious cloth known as the Shroud of Turin that has baffled scientists is at least a powerful reminder of Jesus’ suffering. Later at the end of a Mass for 60,000 people he said the Shroud should spur people to reflect not only on Jesus but also on “the face of every suffering and unjustly persecuted person.”

It makes one cry to see the spectacle of these days in which human beings have been treated like merchandise.

Pope Francis

In a morning outdoor talk to thousands of workers and unemployed people, Pope Francis defended the right to employment and urged his listeners, although going through hard times, to help the 10 per cent of the city’s population living in absolute poverty. “Immigration increases competition but migrants should not be blamed because they are the victims of injustice, of this throw-away economy, of wars,” he said in the manufacturing district that was an engine of Italy’s post-war industrial rise. Francis later went to the cathedral where he sat in silent veneration before the shroud bearing an image, eerily reversed like a photographic negative, of a man with the wounds of a crucifixion.

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