ROME – Pope Francis launched on Wednesday, September 27, a two-year international campaign to embrace immigrants and refugees, share their journey, and counteract mounting anti-immigrant sentiment in the US, Europe and beyond.

“Brothers, don’t be afraid of sharing the journey. Don’t be afraid of sharing hope,” Pope Francis said during his weekly general audience on Wednesday, Press Association reported.

The campaign encourages people to actually meet with migrants and listen to their stories, rather than treat them as statistics clouded by negative stereotypes.

Francis, the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, launched the campaign during Wednesday’s weekly general audience, throwing his arms open to welcome the many refugees and asylum-seekers who filled St Peter’s Square.

He urged individuals and governments to welcome migrants with similarly open arms and share in their plight.

“Hope is the push in the heart of those who leave their home, and sometimes their family and relatives – I am thinking of migrants – to find a better life, with more dignity for themselves and their loved ones,” the pope said, adding that hope is a two-way street when it comes to migration.

“It’s also the push in the heart of those who welcome: the desire to encounter, meet, dialogue… hope is the push to share the journey,” he said.

Pope Francis meets a group of migrants, during his weekly general audience, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

The new campaign, ‘Share the Journey,’ is focused on providing practical ways to encounter migrants and refugees and assist families forced to leave their countries in search of a better life.

“I encourage you to support this praiseworthy initiative as an expression of our solidarity with our many brothers and sisters in need,” the pope said.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has a leading role in the migrant campaign along with the Vatican’s Caritas charity federation, has repeatedly condemned restrictions on immigration and opposed some of the Trump administration’s initiatives.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo and Archbishop Jose Gomez, who lead the bishops’ conference, have met with US vice president Mike Pence to discuss “our reasons why we’re so concerned and opposition to some of the ways the administration was deciding” immigration policy, Cardinal DiNardo said in a phone interview.

“He’s very interested in that we change hearts before we deal with policy,” Cardinal DiNardo said of the pope.