This Saturday, Pope Francis called for a European response to the migration crisis in the Mediterranean Sea, which according to him should be a “laboratory of peace”, stressing that “those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they seek refuge.”
The call comes at a time when some European countries are increasingly resorting to border walls, repatriations and suspected naval blockades to prevent the entry of new flows of refugees.
The head of the Catholic Church maintains that the “wide Sea of Galilee”, which is the Mediterranean, “invites us to oppose the division of conflicts to coexistence between differences.”
Francis also says European governments must do more to help those seeking help across the Mediterranean.
The Pope proposes that the sea where the five continents converge be a “laboratory of peace” with a view to thinking about “the community of humanity, because the dream of war is always built around the past and not the future.”
Regarding immigrants, Francis highlights that they are people and not just numbers, arguing, therefore, that a change in attitude is necessary, so that immigrants are not treated as a problem, but as “brothers”, whose history is known.
Before this speech, the Pope listened to a young woman who affirmed that the Mediterranean is a “sea of fraternity”, at the Mediterranean Meetings conference, which takes place this Saturday in Marseille, France.
The young woman who spoke with Francisco also considered that we currently live in a Mediterranean that is not just a cemetery, “it is a scene of crimes against humanity.”
Francis, who has regretted, on several occasions, that the Mediterranean has become “the largest cemetery in the world”, confirmed his visit months ago, but it arrives precisely at a time when Italy is once again facing a growing number of immigrants who abandon themselves on fragile boats from Tunisia.
Marseille is one of the most multicultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic cities on the Mediterranean coast, and has long been characterized by a strong presence of immigrants living together in a tradition of tolerance.
The French national statistics agency INSEE indicates that in 2019 there were more than 124,000 immigrants in a city of 862,000 inhabitants, that is, around 14.5% of the population.
Of this proportion, almost 30,000 were Algerians and thousands from Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia and other former French colonies in Africa.
Source: TSF
