Pope Francis made it clear: this is not a state visit. He is not going to France, but to Marseille, where he arrived this Friday for a 24-hour visit. At the center of the initiative will be the immigration issue, after the French government refused to welcome immigrants arriving in Lampedusa.
On the agenda, the pontiff has a prayer in the Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde basilica and a meeting with the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Since the beginning of his pontificate, in 2013, Pope Francis has privileged, in his own words, the peripheries of the world. In Europe, small countries and not great powers. It is, therefore, a symbolic city that the Pope chose to visit. Marseille, multicultural and multi-religious city. Border town on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Pope Francis will dedicate this stay to the fate of migrants, one of his greatest concerns. According to Cardinal Aveline, archbishop of Marseille, for the Pope this is a new stage in a long pilgrimage through the Mediterranean, which began ten years ago on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
“The issue of migration is part of the history of the family of Pope Francis, who emigrated from Italy to Argentina, which reveals the awareness of precariousness and the awareness of the care that must be taken towards people who leave their countries. because they want to, but because they are obliged to do so,” argues the Archbishop of Marseille.
One of the highlights of the Pope’s visit will be the prayer next to the monument to those killed at sea, dedicated to sailors and exiles missing at sea.
The Pope’s words in favor of welcoming immigrants by European countries contrast with those of many European politicians and with those of the French Government itself, which refused to welcome people from the last migratory wave that hit Lampedusa.
Source: TSF
