Do not close your eyes, your hearts or your hands, in accordance with your best tradition, to those who knock at your door, Pope Francis said in Bulgaria on Monday.

He said the plight of suffering immigrants and refugees was “the cross of humanity.”

“Today, the world of migrants and refugees is a bit like a cross, the cross of humanity, a cross that many people suffer,” the Pope said.

Pope Francis began his second day in Bulgaria with a visit to a refugee centre in Sofia, where he met with about 50 people and their children who are helped by a Catholic charity.

The centre, housed in a former school building, helps migrants mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Pope is on his three-day trip to Bulgaria and North Macedonia. He heads to North Macedonia on Tuesday.