08 July, 2013 - The issue of migrants and refugees was the theme of the tweet of
Pope Francis on Monday as he headed to the Italian island of Lampedusa, where boatloads
of migrants often arrive in unsafe boats from the nearby coast of Africa, seeking
a better life in Europe, many of whom perish while trying to make it. “We pray for
a heart which will embrace immigrants. God will judge us upon how we have treated
the most needy,” the Pope tweeted on his handle @Pontifex. During a Mass in Lampedusa,
he said he felt pained like a thorn in his heart, hearing about several episodes of
migrants perishing in the sea, and he felt it his duty to come to them not only to
pray in a gesture of closeness, but also to reawaken the conscience of all so that
such things may not happen again.