Pope Francis on Thursday called on leaders in Luxembourg — a small nation with a thriving economy and the highest density of millionaires per capita in the world — to devote resources to help improve conditions in developing countries.
The 87-year-old pontiff, in the landlocked state for a day visit, suggested that an increase in foreign aid could help stem the flow of refugees and migrants seeking to enter Europe.
“Let us not forget that having wealth includes responsibility,” the pontiff told a gathering of political and civil leaders at Luxembourg’s Cercle Cite, a neo-baroque palace.
“I ask for constant vigilance so that the most disadvantaged nations … may be helped to rise from their impoverished conditions.”
It is a rare European visit for Francis, who will also head to Belgium later in the day. He has tended to go to places never visited by a pope, or where Catholics are a small minority.
The pope, who has made care for migrants a priority of his 11-year papacy, said Luxembourg had set “an example in pointing the way forward in welcoming and integrating migrants and refugees”.
Nearly half of Luxembourg’s 654,000-strong population are foreign nationals, primarily from neighbouring countries such as France, Belgium and Germany.
In an off-the-cuff comment, the pope referred to Luxembourg’s low fertility rate and said: “Please, more children.”
Referring to jokes he had made in the past about Western countries having more pets than kids, he promised he would not repeat them. But he said again: “More children.”
Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden, in a speech welcoming Francis, said the Luxembourg constitution proclaims human dignity as a “fundamental right”.
“We must each of us constantly strive to ensure that this dignity is maintained,” he said.
Francis met local Catholics at an event later Thursday at Luxembourg’s Notre-Dame Cathedral. Hundreds of people stood outside the 17th century church to greet the pope, many holding umbrellas under grey, drizzling skies.
Meeting clergy abuse victims
In Belgium, where the pope is travelling on Thursday afternoon, he will hold a private meeting with 15 survivors of abuse, the country’s ambassador to the Vatican, Patrick Renault, said.
More than 700 complaints and reports of abuse involving the church have been made in Belgium since 2012, according to a church report. In March, the pope expelled from the priesthood a former Belgian bishop who admitted to sexually abusing two nephews.
On the flight from Rome on Thursday morning, Francis briefly greeted the journalists travelling on the plane with him, but did not tour the aircraft to meet them individually, as he usually does.
The pope, who now uses a wheelchair due to knee and back pain, said he did not feel up to “making the trip” around the back of the single-aisle aircraft.
Luxembourg, a country with an area of 2,586sqkm, counts about 271,000 Catholics among its population, the Vatican says.