The Pope addresses youths: don't be afraid of meeting migrants
Vatican City - "Do not be afraid of meeting migrants. Do not be afraid, Open your hearts, let them in. Be ready to change". This is how Pope Francis addressed youths when he received in his audience participants of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, in a lengthy unrehearsed speech encouraging them to "change their hearts". "Meeting others leads to change and there is no need to fear change", emphasized the Pontiff, recalling the words of the prophet Isaiah: "Enlarge the place of your tent". "Youths - underlined Pope Francis - are in a privileged position to meet survivors of human trafficking. Go to your parishes - he urged them -, to a nearby association, meet with people, listen to them. At the beginning they won't want to talk because they are afraid, because many go with kindness" and they take the girls and turn them into slaves, the Pontiff added, telling of a girl who had been "deceived by a very Catholic woman in her own country". "She had trusted her - he said -. She was waiting for her at the airport, but so were the human trafficking men and she was placed in the prostitution chain". When she was freed, he went on, "she was taken to a house headed by a nun, and this young girl upon seeing the nun wanted to flee, because it had been a very Catholic woman who had deceived her and tricked her into become a slave. And the poor nun with all her goodness managed to convince her...".