One of the most prominent advocates for allowing millions of refugees to resettle in Europe is now advocating for European "unity."

Pope Francis ended a two day conference on the future of Europe by telling attendees to “recover the sense of being a single community.” 

Reuters:

Francis spoke at the end of a two-day conference at the Vatican called “Re-Thinking Europe”. Dozens of participants attended, including European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, the vice president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and religious leaders.

While the pope did not specifically mention the situation in Catalonia, where the region’s leaders want to break away from Spain, or Britain’s decision to leave the EU, he spoke often of solidarity, teamwork and mutual sacrifice.

“A European Union that, in facing its crises, fails to recover a sense of being a single community that sustains and assists its members – and not just a collection of small interest groups – would miss out not only on one of the greatest challenges of its history, but also on one of the greatest opportunities for its own future,” he said.

“Particular and nationalist agendas risk thwarting the courageous dreams of the founders of Europe,” he said.

In his long speech, Francis appeared to warn against the dangers to Europe posed by populist anti-immigrant parties.

In elections in Germany in September, Alternative for Germany (AfD) secured almost 13 percent of the vote, making it the third largest party and the first far-right party to win seats in more than half a century.

“Extremist and populist groups are finding fertile ground in many countries; they make protest the heart of their political message, without offering the alternative of a constructive political project,” Francis said, without naming any group.

History’s first Latin American pope said politics had often gone astray, saying “Sadly, all too often we see how politics is becoming instead a forum for clashes between opposing forces.”

In his address to the pope at the closing ceremony, Tajani, the European Parliament president, spoke of “risk of a return to intolerance and xenophobia”.

The pope called for immigrants to be welcomed to Europe as an enriching resource, rather than be seen as a threat.

But, in an apparent assertion that immigration had to be controlled, he said that while authorities should have an “open heart” they should be able to “provide for the full integration, on the social, economic and political level” of newcomers.

The pope is oblivious to the damage the policies he has advocated have done to EU "unity." Does he think that Brexit and the entire euro-skeptic enterprise exists in a vacuum? Has he noted the fierce resistance of newly arrived refugees to assimilation? 

In order for unity to prevail, the newcomers must want to be part of Europe. All indications point to the fact that they don't. The "immigrants" would like to carve out their own communities, outside of European civilization. This has alarmed millions of people who are not "xenophobic" or "intolerant." They fear losing a national identity and blame Brussels for foisting millions of non-Europeans on their communities.

The kind of "unity" the pope wants will see the end of Europe and the substitution of alien cultures and attitudes that will alter the very nature of European societies. Until people like the pope realize the monster they have let loose inside Europe's borders, the idea of "unity" will prove to be elusive.