Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Pope Leo XIV spent Saturday in Lampedusa, the small Italian island at the centre of Europe’s migration debate, where he honoured thousands of people who have died trying to reach Europe in search of freedom and prosperity. While the United States marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with rallies, parties and fireworks, the US-born pope visited the migrant cemetery, met migrants at the port and celebrated Mass for island residents and new arrivals.
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The visit carried a message for both Europe and the United States, where Leo has clashed with the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown. In a letter to Americans on the July 4 anniversary, he said protecting human life also meant “welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants, whose hopes, sacrifices and contribution have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning,” and added: “To receive them with compassion and generosity is not only an act of charity, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human person.” Later on Saturday, he visited the residence of the US ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch, after accepting an invitation to join the anniversary celebrations.
Lampedusa, a treeless island about 9 km long, lies closer to Africa than to the Italian mainland and has for years been the main entry point into Europe for hundreds of thousands of migrants crossing by boat from Libya or Tunisia, often with the help of human traffickers. After arriving by plane, Leo met some migrants at the port and then walked alone onto the jagged rocks of the jetty, with strong winds whipping his cassock and blowing off his zucchetto skullcap as he looked out at the sea. He then blessed a plaque dedicating the dock to Pope Francis, who visited in 2013, before celebrating Mass.
“This is a place where gestures speak louder than words,” Leo said. “But for gestures to be human, they need a heart.” In his homily, he thanked the people of Lampedusa for the “miracle of compassion” they had shown in welcoming migrants and urged Europe to meet the moment and take responsibility. “Indeed, before any intellectual consideration or ideological conviction, the encounter with those who lie before us, stripped of everything, calls us to be close to them,” he said, wearing vestments decorated with images of waves.
Speaking from what he called “this far-flung corner of Europe on the Mediterranean Sea”, Leo urged European leaders to deal with migration in a comprehensive way, combining immediate relief with long-term plans to receive, protect, support and integrate migrants, while also helping develop their home countries so that no one is forced to leave. “Here you have seen not just one, but thousands of human beings fallen into the hands of robbers who have taken everything from them, beat them brutally and walked away, leaving them half-dead,” he said. Referring to those who died on the journey, he added: “yet we feel their presence, which challenges us no less than that of those who have landed in need of attention and aid.”
In recent years, Lampedusa has become the focal point of Europe’s migration debate as the continent struggles to police its borders while also meeting its legal duty towards refugees fleeing conflict, climate change and poverty. Italy’s Interior Ministry said 14,464 migrants had arrived in the country so far this year as of Friday, compared with 30,598 in the same period last year and 26,202 in 2024. At the same time, the International Organisation of Migration has recorded more than 35,000 missing migrants in the Mediterranean since 2014, though the actual number is believed to be far higher because many “invisible” shipwrecks are never recorded.
Leo has repeatedly stressed the need to protect the dignity of migrants, especially during the Trump administration’s mass deportation programme in his native Chicago, and he has also directed his message at Europe’s Christian leaders. Last month, he visited Spain’s Canary Islands, another migration hotspot, where he criticised leaders who turned migrants away indifferently and warned people smugglers that they would face God’s wrath for exploiting desperate people.
In Lampedusa, Leo paid tribute to the dead at the island’s migrant cemetery, laying a wreath of yellow and white flowers on graves marked by simple crosses made from the splintered wood of wrecked boats. Tareke Brhane, an Eritrean migrant and president of the October 3 Committee, said the gestures sent a “strong message” of solidarity. “It is a strong sign for our battle with Italy and with Europe in order to register the deaths, because as of today we still do not have a registry (of those deceased),” he told The Associated Press. He said the visit honoured the dead and “gives a message to the relatives, so many of them still waiting and suffering”.
The visit also echoed the path taken by Pope Francis, who made migrants and refugees a priority of his papacy and visited Lampedusa in July 2013 on his first trip outside Rome after his election. Francis threw a wreath into the sea for migrants who had died and denounced the “globalization of indifference” shown to them. Salvatore Sortino, the IOM’s head of mission for Italy and Malta, said that despite fewer arrivals, deaths had risen proportionally, “in the sense that the diminishing numbers of arrivals hasn’t resulted in a lower number of deaths at sea”. He added: “That speaks about the vulnerability that remains. So the visit of the pope here, where all this happens, I think is a very important reminder of that element.” Overall, Leo’s visit to Lampedusa combined prayer, remembrance and a call to treat migrants with dignity, while highlighting the human cost of dangerous sea crossings.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
