Pope chides Europe, comforts migrants on return to Lesbos

By NICOLE WINFIELD, TRISHA THOMAS and DEREK GATOPOULOS
Associated Press

LESBOS, Greece (AP) — Pope Francis has offered comfort to migrants at a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. He blasted what he said is the indifference and self-interest shown by Europe “that condemns to death those on the fringes.” Francis visited the Mavrovouni camp, a cluster of white U.N. containers on the edge of the sea lined by barbed wire fencing and draped with laundry hanging outside. It was Francis’ second trip to Lesbos in five years. He lamented that little had changed since 2016, when Lesbos was at the heart of a massive wave of migration to Europe. Francis at that time brought 12 Syrian Muslim refugees home with him aboard the papal plane but there was no papal airlift on Sunday.