Pope urges Bulgaria “don’t close your heart” to migrants

<p>Pope Francis visited a refugee centre in Sofia and a Roman Catholic Church in Rakovski in Bulgaria where he advocated on behalf of migrants and refugees describing their suffering as&nbsp;“the cross of humanity”.&nbsp;</p> <p>The pope’s defence of migrants is a central point of his pontificate and he also hopes that his visit will heal divisions between the Eastern and Western Orthodox Churches which split in 1054.&nbsp;</p> <p>Rakovski is a majority Roman Catholic town in the overwhelming&nbsp; Eastern Orthodox country. The population of Roman Catholic's is less than one per cent.&nbsp;</p> <p>He plans to travel to North Macedonia for the final leg of the trip on Tuesday.</p> <p>The pope urged the government directly to :</p> <blockquote><p> <em>“not close your eyes, your hearts or your hands, in accordance with your best tradition, to those who knock at your door”.</em> </p></blockquote> <p>Bulgaria is the poorest country in the EU and has had over two million people emigrate since the collapse of Communism in 1989. The government has adopted a staunch anti-immigration position despite its&nbsp;rapidly ageing population and a low birth rate.&nbsp;</p> <p>Bulgaria has built a fence across its&nbsp;shared border with Turkey to prevent migration and has increased controls on migration from Greece since 2015.</p> <p>Read more <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pope-bulgaria/pope-defends-migrants-d…">here</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>