Pope visit a sign of inclusion for Slovakia’s excluded Roma

By NICOLE WINFIELD and KAREL JANICEK
Associated Press

KOSICE, Slovakia (AP) — Pope Francis is urging Slovakia’s Roma to integrate better into the mainstream as he meets with the country’s most socially excluded minority group, who have long suffered discrimination, marginalization and poverty. But Francis’ visit Tuesday to the Lunik IX settlement in Kosice brought home just how excluded the Roma are. Police and soldiers lined tall fencing along the route into the neighborhood, preventing residents who hadn’t registered from accessing the small seating area for the event. Still, the visit is one of the highlights of Francis’ four-day pilgrimage to Hungary and Slovakia. The trip is his first since undergoing intestinal surgery in July and the restart of his globetrotting papacy after a nearly two-year coronavirus hiatus.