Article snippet: “Fears often focus on the foreigner, the one who is different from us, poor, as if he were an enemy,” Francis said Sunday in an address delivered during a visit to the Sant’Egidio Community, an international lay group celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding. “People even draft plans for the development of nations based on the fight against these people,” the pope continued. “And then we defend ourselves from these people, thinking that in this way we preserve what we have or who we are.” In last Sunday’s Italian elections, voters favored the Center-Right coalition, which had adopted a hardline stance against open borders in its political program. In the last several years, Italy has taken in some 700,000 migrants, mostly originating from sub-Saharan Africa, and the ruling Democratic Party (PD) had been widely viewed as ineffective in curbing the massive influx of migrants into the country. In his speech Sunday, Pope Francis focused especially on the issue of fear. Fear, he said, “is an ancient disease” and a poor counselor, to which Christians are not immune. “Our time knows great fears in the face of the vast dimensions of globalization.” “The Word of God has protected you in the past from the temptations of ideology and today frees you from intimidation of fear,” he said. In point of fact, however, the pontiff would seem not be counseling against all fear, but particularly the fear of immigrants. For example, he has warned of fearsome consequences that... Link to the full article to read more