Excerpt:
The migrant crisis engulfing Europe poses a big challenge to Europe's values and traditions but the continent should be able to integrate the newcomers without undermining the safety of its citizens, Pope Francis said on Monday.
More than one million people sought refuge in Europe last year, many of them fleeing violence in Syria and Iraq. A majority of the migrants are Muslims and Europeans are worried about how to integrate them, especially since the Nov. 13 attacks by Islamist militants in Paris that killed 130 people.
"The present wave of migration seems to be undermining the foundations of that humanistic spirit which Europe has always loved and defended," the pope said in an annual address to diplomats at the Vatican City, adding that he hoped countries would prove capable of welcoming the refugees.