“Today, I will postpone the usual catechesis and I would like to pause with you to think about the people who – even at this moment – are crossing seas and deserts to reach a land where they can live in peace and safety.”
This is how Pope Francis began his Wednesday general audience this August 28, pausing the cycle he has been dedicating to the theme of the Holy Spirit.
He spoke about the many testimonies he receives both from aid workers and from migrants, noting how “sea” and “desert” are two words often found in their reflections.
And when I say “sea,” in the context of migrations, I also mean ocean, lake, river, all the insidious bodies of water that so many brothers and sisters all over the world are forced to cross to reach their destination. And “desert” is not only that of sand and dunes, or rocks, but they are also those inaccessible and dangerous territories, such as forests, jungles, steppes where migrants walk alone, left to their own devices.
Crossing these “seas” and “deserts” is too often deadly for “too many people, too many!,” the Pope lamented.
The Holy Father noted that the Mediterranean has often been in his speeches and appeals, “because I am the Bishop of Rome and because it is emblematic: the mare nostrum, a place of communication between peoples and civilizations, has become – the mare nostrum – it has become a cemetery.”
But he decried the “tragedy” of these deaths, i.e.,: “that many, the majority of these deaths, could have been prevented.”
The Holy Father has made the plight of migrants one of the recurring issues of his pontificate. He routinely insists on both openness to migrants because they are human beings, as well as the importance of integration in the new homelands, so as to avoid further problems with ghettoing.
“Repelling” people a grave sin
The Pope said that “it must be said clearly” that people are working “systematically and with every means possible” in order to “repel migrants, to repel migrants.”
“And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin,” he insisted. “Let us not forget what the Bible tells us: ‘You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him’ (Ex 22:21). The orphan, the widow and the stranger are the quintessential poor whom God always defends and asks to be defended.”
The Pope said some deserts are also becoming cemeteries, like the Mediterranean has. And here, too, because people are abandoned despite us living “in the time of satellites and drones.”
“And this is a cruelty of our civilization,” he said.
Biblical places
Pope Francis noted the symbolic values of seas and deserts in the Bible.
They are very important scenes in the history of the exodus, the great migration of the people led by God through Moses from Egypt to the promised Land. These places witness the drama of the people fleeing oppression and slavery. They are places of suffering, fear, and desperation, but at the same time they are places of passage for liberation – and how many people cross the seas and the deserts to free themselves, today – they are places of passage for redemption, to reach freedom and the fulfilment of God’s promises (cf. Message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2024).
Citing Psalm 77, the Pope recalled that “to accompany the people on their journey to freedom, God Himself crosses the sea and the desert; God does not remain at a distance, no; He shares in the migrants’ drama, God is there with them, with the migrants, He suffers with them, with the migrants, He weeps and hopes with them, with the migrants. …”
“The Lord is with our migrants in the mare nostrum, the Lord is with them, not with those who repel them,” the Pope warned.
The Holy Father said that all people can agree that “migrants should not be in those seas and in those lethal deserts,” but then added that “it is not with rejection that we will obtain this result.”
Instead, we will obtain it by extending safe and legal access routes for migrants, providing refuge for those who flee from war, violence, persecution, and various disasters; we will obtain it by promoting in every way a global governance of migration based on justice, fraternity, and solidarity. And by joining forces to combat human trafficking, to stop the criminal traffickers who mercilessly exploit the misery of others.
The Pope thanked those individuals and associations that are working to help migrants, calling them “good Samaritans.”
And us? He said:
We cannot be on the front line but we are not excluded; there are many ways to make a contribution, first and foremost prayer. And I ask you: Do you pray for migrants, for those who come to our lands to save their lives? And then they want to send them away…
Dear brothers and sisters, let us join our hearts and forces, so that the seas and deserts are not cemeteries, but spaces where God may open up roads to freedom and fraternity.
Forcing a return to “concentration camps”
The Pope’s words come against a particular backdrop. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government has expressed its satisfaction at the 65% drop in the number of arrivals of illegal migrants since January 1, 2024, compared to the same period in 2023. More restrictive measures on the handling of migrants and increased cooperation with Libya and Tunisia may have contributed to this result.
However, at the same time, arrivals have jumped by 222% in Greece and 155% in Spain, according to an article in Le Figaro.
Pope Francis has repeatedly denounced restrictive immigration laws, considering that they only aggravate or displace the problem without solving it. In particular, he has spoken out against the return of migrants to Libya.
At the Angelus on October 24, 2021, he spoke of the “inhuman violence” suffered by migrants trapped in Libya, who are herded into “veritable concentration camps.”
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Here is an excerpt from the pope’s press conference on the return flight from Colombia, September 10, 2017, when he spoke of immigration and integration:
Second, I feel much obliged to Italy and Greece, because they have opened their hearts to migrants. Yet opening our hearts is not enough. We do need to open our hearts, first and always; this is also one of God’s commandments, to welcome others; “You too were a slave, a migrant in Egypt” (cf. Lev 19:33-34), as the Bible tells us. All the same, governments have to manage this with the virtue proper to governance, which is prudence.
Meaning what? First, how many places do we have available? Second, not just to accept, but to integrate. Here in Italy, I have seen marvelous examples of integration. When I went to the Roma III University, four students asked me questions. While the last one was asking her question, I kept looking at her and thinking: “I know that face …” Less than a year ago, she had traveled with me on the plane from Lesvos. She learned Italian and because she was studying biology in her country, she did her equivalency and continued her studies. She learned the language. This is what it means to integrate.
On another flight – returning from Sweden, I think – I spoke of Sweden’s integration policy as a model, but Sweden too has prudently said: “This is the number; more than this we cannot handle,” because of the danger of non-integration. Third, there is the humanitarian issue that you mentioned. Is the world aware of these camps, of the conditions there, in the desert? I have seen photographs … Exploiters exist. You spoke of the Italian government. I think they are doing everything possible to provide humanitarian assistance, and to solve a problem that they cannot take on … But [to sum up]: always an open heart, prudence, integration and humanitarian assistance.
And today we celebrate...