The Pope asks to regulate immigration responsibly: "He who risks his life at sea does not invade, he seeks shelter"

He begins his second day in Marseille visiting a house of the Missionaries of Charity on the outskirts

MADRID, 23 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Pope Francis has advocated this Saturday in Marseille for a fair reception of migrants in Europe, facilitating the entry of these people through legal channels, and has rejected alarmist propaganda about the reality of immigration.

"The words invasion and emergency feed people's fears and ports are closed, but those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they seek shelter, they seek life," said the Pontiff.

During the closing of the 'Mediterranean Meetings', the Pope appealed to European responsibility and reiterated his request not to lock oneself in indifference to the drama of migration. "Those who take refuge with us should not be seen as a burden to be carried, but as gifts," he stressed.

"There is a cry of pain that resonates above all, and that is turning Mare Nostrum into Mare Mortum, the Mediterranean from the cradle of civilization to the tomb of dignity. It is the muffled cry of the migrant brothers and sisters," he said. said Francis sitting in a white armchair in the center of the stage installed in the Palais du Pharo in Marseille.

This call has been accompanied by the denunciation of "alarmist campaigns", "fundamentalist rhetoric" and "outdated and belligerent nationalisms that want to diminish the dream of the community of nations."

The Mediterranean is a "mirror of the world" and "carries within itself a global vocation of fraternity, the only way to prevent and overcome conflicts," according to the Pope's words.

For seven days, more than 120 representatives of Churches and young people from the five shores of the Mediterranean shared the current political, economic and environmental challenges of the region, but also their hopes for the future, with special attention to the current migration crisis.

Recalling the distinctive heterogeneous and cosmopolitan character of Marseille, a "multitude of peoples" that "has made this city a mosaic of hope, with its great multiethnic and multicultural tradition", reflecting the multiple civilizations of the Mediterranean, Pope Francis developed his reflection on three aspects that characterize the city in the south of France: the sea, the port and the lighthouse.

Francis observed that we often hear of Mediterranean history as a "web of conflicts between civilizations, religions and different visions" but this should not make us forget that the Mediterranean is a "cradle of civilization" and that the Mare Nostrum (our sea ) has been for centuries a meeting space "between the Abrahamic religions; between Greek, Latin and Arabic thought; between science, philosophy and law, and among many other realities."

"The Mare Nostrum, at the crossroads between North and South, East and West," said Pope Francis, "invites us to oppose the division of conflicts with the conviviality of differences" and, at the same time, "concentrates challenges of the entire world", including climate change.

For the Mediterranean to "return to being a laboratory of peace" in the world, in the midst of "today's sea of ​​conflicts" and the resurgence of belligerent nationalisms, Francis said that the cry of the poor must be heard as Jesus did to shores of the Sea of ​​Galilee. "It is from the cry of the last, often silent, that we must start again, because they are faces, not numbers," the Pope said.

Noting that today "the sea of ​​human coexistence is contaminated by precariousness" that hurts even in European cities like Marseille, which face community tensions and an increase in crime, Pope Francis insisted once again on the urgency of a shake-up of awareness to say "no" to illegality and "yes" to solidarity.

In his opinion "the true social evil lies not so much in the growth of problems, but in the decline of attention" to the most vulnerable: young people abandoned to their fate, who are easy prey for crime, frightened families, fearful of the future, the elderly alone, the unborn children, the cries of pain rising from North Africa and the Middle East, including Christians fleeing persecution.

The Pope denounced the fact that several other Mediterranean cities have closed their ports fueling people's fears: "invasion" and "emergency." But whoever risks his life at sea does not invade, he seeks shelter, Francisco clarified.

Regarding the "emergency", he stressed that the migratory phenomenon is not so much a momentary emergency, always opportune to stir up alarmist propaganda, but rather a reality of our time, a process that involves three continents around the Mediterranean and that must be governed. with wise clairvoyance: with a European responsibility capable of facing objective difficulties".

Here too, he noted, the "Mediterranean is a mirror of the world," with the poorest countries in the South "ravaged by instability, regimes, wars and desertification" turning to the richer North.

"The Mediterranean is a mirror of the world, with the South turning towards the North; with so many developing countries, afflicted by instability, regimes, wars and desertification, looking to the wealthy, in a globalized world, where we are all connected, but where the differences have never been so profound," he declared.

Pope Francis began his second day in Marseille by visiting one of the centers for the poor and needy managed by the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, in the Saint Mauront neighborhood, on the outskirts of Marseille. .

Francisco spent a few minutes in this center that takes care of the poor and needy, and greeted some of the people who were there, among whom were migrants from various countries who live in this neighborhood.