In Europe, “in no countries are there any walls”, there are only “fences and barbed wire”, and the starting point of the efforts made by the Churches in Europe are the guidelines provided by Pope Francis, “generosity, help, support”. But “legal solutions depend on each region, and giving one single recipe is very difficult”. This is what cardinal Péter Erdő, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and president of the Council of European Bishops Conferences, answered the press who this morning asked him what the position of the European Churches was about the walls that have been built along the borders of some Eastern and South-Eastern European countries, in response to migrant flows from the Balkan route. The presidency of the Council of European Bishops Conferences was received in audience by Pope Francis yesterday morning, and today it organised a press conference in the premises of the Vatican Radio. “The phenomenon of migration – the Hungarian cardinal said – must be addressed on a continental level, considering the differences that there are in the different regions of Europe, which need to be patiently understood in order to find proper Christian responses to actual challenges”. In making such effort, the cardinal called to make a distinction between the “home countries” (Iraq and Syria), the “transit countries” (as far as Austria), and “the countries that are the final destination of migrant flows”. The president of the European bishops also called to consider the need to provide “legal passages” from one border to the next, leaving one’s identity behind, and in this respect he pointed out that “430 thousand migrants passed through Hungary in 2015, 100 thousand of them with no identity check”. Then, because the wages in the Eastern countries are 20% of those of Western Europe, migrants “won’t want to stay”.