Jesus and the Dalai Lama were refugees
Should Christian charity also apply to those who come to us as refugees?
President Trump and his deputy, the Catholic J. D. Vance, say ‘no’. But Pope Francis and his successor, Pope Leo XIV, say a clear ‘yes’. The Vatican has just reaffirmed this position with a thunderclap. But the media has reported little about it.
On the last day of his life, the terminally ill Pope Francis received the Catholic Vice President of the United States, Vance, who had converted to Catholicism in 2019. Vance probably wanted to capture some of Francis’ charisma in beautiful pictures. Vance had previously written that charity means loving your family first, then your neighbours, then your fellow citizens in your own country, and only then ‘the rest of the world’.
Pope Francis had already rejected this definition as ‘unchristian’. But Leo XIV – then still Cardinal Robert Brevost of the Curia – also strongly disagreed: ‘J. D. Vance is wrong. Jesus does not ask us to rank our love for others.’ Jesus himself was a migrant, and his parable of the Good Samaritan shows that charity means all people. Human dignity therefore naturally applies to all people. All people are equal ‘children of God’.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote on 11 December 2025: ‘But the real thunderbolt is contained in the Pope’s message for the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees on 25 October 2025. This message is one of the great pastoral texts of our time.’ Pope Leo XIV: The presence of refugees should therefore be ‘recognised and valued as a true blessing from God’.
The entire history of humanity is a history of refugees. Every refugee is more than just an additional worker, more than just another taxpayer and financier of our pensions. They enrich us culturally and spiritually. Even 2,000 years ago, the emigrant from Nazareth only survived because his parents fled with him to Egypt to escape Herod, the murderer of children. His life and teachings became an enrichment for the whole world. He brought about the greatest turning point in history.
And today, the charismatic religious leader Dalai Lama has become the ‘spiritual teacher of the world and a great example of tolerance’ (Barack Obama) after fleeing Tibet for India in 1959. He says: ‘For the survival of humanity, awareness of what we have in common is more important than constantly emphasising what divides us.’
Refugees are worth their weight in gold. They will also enrich, change and renew our country.
The migrant issue has also become a question of credibility in Germany – especially the credibility of the two ‘C’ parties. ‘What are refugees?’ a teacher in North Rhine-Westphalia asked her pupils. An eight-year-old girl’s answer: ‘People.’
Source
Franz Alt 2025| Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
