Clooneys meet Pope at Vatican as Francis continues to highlight migrants’ plight (photos)

The pope has met a number of high profile celebrities, including the Clooneys, as he continues to highlight to plight of migrants attempting to reach Europe, the Daily Mail reports.

Actor George and his human rights barrister wife Amal were joined by actress Salma Hayek and Richard Gere at Paul VI Hall in Vatican City today for a seminar led by the pope called 'Un Muro o Un Ponte'.

During the event Pope Francis said he has no intention of quitting the papacy - a possibility opened up by his predecessor Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

The pope, responding to a question from a young person at a Vatican event, said on Sunday `'I never thought of quitting being pope, or of leaving because of the many responsibilities.”

The pope has previously said he envisioned a short papacy before going on “to the Father's house,” but he has never specifically ruled out following in Benedict's footsteps.

Benedict retired in 2013, the first pope to step down in 600 years. The pope spoke at a Vatican gathering for the Scholas Occurentes global educational initiative that he launched.

George Clooney and Richard Gere were honored for their contributions.

Actress Ms Hayek also attended the event with her husband, billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault and their daughter Valentina Paloma Pinault.

Pope Francis awarded medals to Mr Gere, Mr Clooney and Ms Hayek at an event held at the Vatican to promote the work of a foundation inspired by the pontiff, Scholas Occurrentes.

The foundation, whose name means 'schools that meet' in Spanish, links technology with the arts, aiming at social integration and a cultural of peace.

Francis had created a similar organisation when he was Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, but Scholas has now become an international foundation working out of the Vatican.

“Important values can be transmitted by celebrities,” said one of the organisers, Lorena Bianchetti, adding that the actors had agreed to be ambassadors for one of the foundation's arts projects.
 

The pope has held a number of events recently as he continues to highlight to plight of migrants attempting to reach Europe.

More than 700 migrants - including 40 children - have been killed in shipwreck disasters in under a week, it has emerged. Hundreds drowned between Wednesday and Friday when their boats all overturned off southern Italy, according to the UN refugee agency.

Yesterday Pope Francis held an emotional meeting with hundreds of children on Saturday, including a Nigerian boy whose parents drowned in a shipwreck, and told them migrants 'are not dangerous, but in danger”.

The meeting followed a surge in migrant traffic this week between Libya and Italy, with more than 14,000 saved from overcrowded boats since Monday and three consecutive days of shipwrecks in which hundreds may have died.

Three infants were among 45 bodies recovered at sea on Friday, UNICEF Italy said.

Meeting the mostly Italian children who took a special train from southern Italy to the Vatican's own railway station, Francis hugged the Nigerian boy, Osayande, who has been taken in by an Italian family.

He showed them an orange life jacket he was given by a Spanish rescuer working to save lives in the Mediterranean. 'He brought me this life jacket and, crying a little bit, he said: 'Father, I failed. There was a little girl in the sea and I wasn't able to save her. All I could reach was her life jacket'' the pope said. 'What was her name? I don't know - a little girl without a name ... She's in heaven and watching us. Let's close our eyes, think about her and give her a name.”

The influx of migrants and refugees into Europe in recent years has fanned popular fears of foreigners and prompted politicians to tighten border controls and limit the number of newcomers allowed to stay.

The pope has repeatedly sought to underscore the plight of these people, especially the hundreds of thousands who have risked their lives to come to Europe in flimsy boats.

He visited the Greek island of Lesbos last month, bringing 12 refugees back on his plane to set an example of how other people and countries should welcome refugees.

In southern Italy on Saturday, about 4,000 migrants made it to dry land, many of them exhausted and dehydrated.

“The number of minors who make the journey on their own and arrive in Europe is much higher than what we saw last year,” Save the Children spokeswoman Giovanna Di Benedetto said.

“But we are increasingly coming across much younger children, children of nine or ten years of age, who have made the journey alone or who have lost their parents or family members with whom they were travelling,” she said.