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​​Pope calls out prejudice as he meets Roma in Slovakia

​​Pope calls out prejudice as he meets Roma in Slovakia

ROBERT MULLER  POPE Francis has condemned prejudice and discrimination against Europe's Roma people during a visit to one of the most impoverished communities in Slovakia, saying it was wrong to pigeonhole entire ethnic groups. Francis, 84, arrived at the bleak Lunik IX settlement on the outskirts of Slovakia's second-biggest city, Kosice, on his penultimate day in the country. "We cannot reduce the reality of others to fit our own pre-packaged ideas; people cannot be pigeonholed," he said, overlooking the dilapidated concrete apartment blocs where about 4,300 people live next to the city garbage dump. "All too often you have been…
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Seeking change, Slovak Roma settlement puts faith in Pope visit

Seeking change, Slovak Roma settlement puts faith in Pope visit

ROBERT MULLER FOR factory worker Milan Turtak, the smoke-blackened buildings, sidewalks littered with garbage and extension cords hooked between apartment windows highlight the poverty and years of neglect in his Roma neighbourhood in eastern Slovakia. With little improvement in the Lunik IX settlement over past decades, Turtak and others have pinned their hopes for change on a decision by Pope Francis to speak in the neighbourhood -- located near a garbage dump -- on his central European trip. "I am glad that the pope will come because if he did not, nothing would change here," Turtak, 71, told Reuters inside…
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