Tagle asks Filipinos: Pray for refugees around the world

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle, president of Caritas Internationalis, on Tuesday asked Filipinos to pray for the refugees in the Middle East and around the world.

Cardinal Tagle, who is currently in Lebanon to help in the refugee crisis, said that it was a big challenge to wholly understand the situation of the refugees in the Middle East.

“The refugee problem here in the Middle East defies understanding. We pray! May the Church be heard as a voice of sanity and humaneness in the world as many leaders of nations take the dreadful path of intolerance and narrow-mindedness. Mary, our Mother of Mercy, pray for us,” he said over church-run Radyo Veritas.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recorded 4.8 million evacuees from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. There are 6.6 million internally displaced persons in Syria while one million refugees are in Europe.

“(Tayo ay) manalangin para sa masaklap na sitwasyon ng mga refugee at marinig ng mundo ang tinig ng Simbahan para sila ay magkataong harapin ng lider ng mga bansa na walang pakialam at pagkalinga sa kanilang kapakanan,” Tagle added.

(Let us pray for the harsh situation of the refugees so that the world will hear the voice of the church in order to face leaders of countries that don’t care about the refugees’ fate.) JE/rga