By Agence France-Presse

Pope Francis said in Panama on Friday that it was “senseless” to condemn every immigrant as a threat to society.

Francis was speaking after leading a solemn ceremony for hundreds of thousands of young pilgrims at the Catholic World Youth Day event.

He said the Church wanted to foster a culture “that welcomes, protects, promotes and integrates, that does not stigmatize, much less indulge in a senseless and irresponsible condemnation of every immigrant as a threat to society.”

In a wide-ranging speech to round off a massive gathering of young people in a Panama park, the pope also made a plea for the environment that he said was “trampled underfoot by disregard and fury of consumption beyond all reason.”

Society in general “has lost the ability to weep and to be moved by suffering.”

Instead of solidarity “from an opulent society” many encountered rejection, sorrow and misery “and are singled out and treated as responsible for all society’s ills.”