Not for the first time in this pontificate, Pope Francis sprang a surprise, this time by bringing three Syrian migrant families to the Vatican.
Francis brought them to Rome on his papal flight, at the end of a five-hour-long “solidarity” visit on Saturday to the Greek island of Lesbos.
Speaking to the faithful in St Peter's Square yesterday, the pope said that he, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, and the Orthodox Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, Ieronymos, have seen "so much pain" on their ecumenical visit.
He said: “I want to tell you the story of a young man, under 40, whom I met yesterday with his two children. He is a Muslim who was married to a Christian. They loved and respected one another. Unfortunately, she had her throat cut by terrorists because she didn’t want to deny Christ and renounce her faith . . . She is a martyr . . . and her husband is left crying, crying . . .”
The decision to bring back three families – six children and six adults – was taken less than a week ago, relying on the know-how and refugee experience of the Rome-based lay community of Sant’Egidio.
Purely ‘humanitarian’
The families, who were escorted off the papal plane by the pope himself, are now housed in
Palazzo Leopardi
, a Sant’Egidio-run hospice for foreigners in Rome’s Trastevere district.
Speaking on the plane on his return to Rome, Francis said that the decision to bring the families to Rome had been a purely “humanitarian” initiative, not any sort of “political speculation”.
The pope did say, however, that Europe had "a responsibility of welcome" to migrants. He also said he would invite arms producers to "spend a day in Lesbos" to see the havoc caused in Syria by their weapons.
During his press conference, the pope was asked to confirm that he had met with US Democrat presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders on Saturday morning. Mr Sanders was in Rome at the weekend to attend a conference in the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
Throughout last week, the Vatican had insisted that the pope would not be meeting with Mr Sanders.
At the academy meeting on Friday, which was addressed by Mr Sanders, the Argentine Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo read out a message from the pope in which he apologised for not having the time to meet all the participants.
Met briefly
Mr Sanders was staying at the Domus Santa Marta, which is also home to the pope. He met the pope briefly as he was departing for Ciampino airport, en route to Lesbos. Asked if this meant that he had got involved in US politics, Pope Francis dismissed the suggestion, saying: “This morning, as I was on my way out, there was Senator Sanders who was here to attend the [academy] conference. He knew I was leaving at that time and he was kind enough to wait to say hello to me. I greeted him, shook his hand and that of his wife . . . it was a handshake and nothing more.
“This is good manners, it is called good manners not getting politically involved. If anyone thinks that greeting someone means getting politically involved, then they need a psychiatrist.”