The Supreme Pontiff concluded his apostolic trip to Malta with a visit to the Giovanni XXIII Peace Lab migrant centre, where he met two hundred migrants. In his speech, Pope Francis denounced the authorities’ complicity in human rights violations and expressed his dream of seeing migrants become witnesses of welcome and fraternity in Europe.
Pope Francis was welcomed in Granaries Square in Floriana, near the capital Valletta, by cheers from the large crowd. About 12,000 people gathered in the open air last Sunday for the Pope’s mass, which was part of a two-day visit to the Mediterranean archipelago. Well before mass, the The Pontiff paid his respects at the grotto of Saint Paul in Rabat, one of the main places of pilgrimage on the island, which his predecessors Paul II and Benedict XVI had already visited.
The head of the Catholic Church concerned about the situation of migrants
From the island, more precisely from a reception centre for refugees, Pope Francis launched on Sunday 3 April a new appeal on the fate of migrants. From this stretch of land, he called once again to follow in the footsteps of Saint Paul, who, according to Christian tradition, was shipwrecked in the year 60 off the coast of Malta, in reference to the migrants arriving in the Mediterranean archipelago. “Help us to recognise from afar the needs of those struggling amidst the waves of the sea, cast upon the rocks of an unknown shore. Do not let our compassion be exhausted by empty words “he said. Indeed, he did not fail to denounce the “sordid agreements” made by the European Union with Libya to train the coastguards who intercept migrants.
“I have never forgotten you”, says the Pope to migrants
These migrants come from Somalia, Nigeria, Eritrea, Sudan… and dream of finding a better land to ensure a future of peace and freedom. Along the way, they lost companions in the desert sand, on the streets of Libyan cities in anarchy, in horrific holding camps on the Libyan coast, or at sea, just off the coast of Africa or in sight of European islands. The pontiff said that since his trip to Lampedusa at the very beginning of his pontificate in July 2013, he has always carried them in his heart and in his prayers.“Since I went to Lampedusa, I have never forgotten you,”he said.
With a sluggish gait and severe limping, the sovereign is clearly suffering from a severe knee pain and a throbbing hip that prohibits him from taking the stairs and forces him to sit in his popemobile This condition did not prevent him from expressing his pious thoughts towards his migrant sons and daughters. For the Franciscan Dionisio Mintoff, founder of the place in the 1970s, “No one would want to leave their history and loved ones behind, but war, hunger and the inability to build a future for themselves and their children is driving many men and women to flee their country and seek safety.
Read also: Crossing the Mediterranean: A way of the cross for migrants
As the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that 1,971 people will be dead or missing in the Mediterranean in 2021, Pope Francis urges Europe to show compassion and mercy to those refugees crossing the Mediterranean from Libya. ” Shipwreck is something that thousands of men, women and children have experienced in the Mediterranean in recent years. Unfortunately, for many of them, it ended in tragedy. Just yesterday there was news of a shipwreck off the Libyan coast, with only four people surviving from a boat with about 90 people. Let us pray for our brothers who have died in our Mediterranean Sea ” he added. These words express the need to find a favourable solution to the situation of migrants on the continent.
