Pope Francis said while it was “almost impossible” to have a dialogue with Islamic State insurgents, the door should not be shut.

“I never say ‘all is lost’, never. Maybe there can’t be a dialogue but you can never shut a door,” he told reporters on his plane returning from Strasbourg, France, where he addressed the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.

Islamic State militants have captured large amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria, beheaded or crucified prisoners, massacred non-Sunni Muslim civilians in its path and displaced tens of thousands of people.

On Tuesday, IS militants stoned two men to death after claiming that were gay, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Activists on social media said that the dead men were opponents of IS and that the group had used the allegation as a pretext to kill them.

 

During his address to the European Parliament, Pope Francis told Europe’s leaders  to do more to help thousands of migrants risking their lives trying to get into the continent, saying they had to stop the Mediterranean becoming “a vast cemetery”.

He also said Europe should create jobs and not allow the bureaucracy of its institutions to suffocate the ideals which once made it vibrant.

On Tuesday, he called for a Europe that “revolves not around the economy but around the sacredness of the human person”.

“The time has come to promote policies which create employment, but above all there is a need to restore dignity to labour by ensuring proper working conditions,” he said.

“This implies, on the one hand, finding new ways of joining market flexibility with the need for stability and security on the part of workers; these are indispensable for their human development,” he said.

Unemployment is about 10.1 per cent in the 28-nation European Union and about 11.5 in the 18-nation eurozone. It is more than double that level in Spain and Greece and youth unemployment is more than 40 per cent in some areas.

Francis spoke of Europe’s immigration crisis a few days after 600 migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean between Sicily and North Africa.

“There needs to be a united response to the question of migration. We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery,” he said.

“The boats landing daily on the shores of Europe are filled with men and women who need acceptance and assistance,” he said, calling on Europe powers to work together to protect immigrants from human traffickers.

The International Organisation for Migration estimates that 3200 migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean this year.

Reuters, AFP