In the midst of the migration crisis that is shaking Europe after the last days of chaos experienced in Lampedusa, Pope Francis has once again tried to draw the world’s attention to the drama experienced by the thousands of people who cross the Mediterranean every year. Francis focused his short trip, of only 27 hours, to Marseille on the occasion of the Mediterranean Encounters – an initiative of the Catholic Church – by calling on European countries to manage this challenge with “responsibility” and not as an emergency to stir the “alarmist propaganda”, along the lines of the message of solidarity with migrants that has become one of the pillars of this pontificate.

He did it first on Friday, going to a wake in memory of sailors and migrants who disappeared in the Mediterranean in front of the Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica, where he denounced the “gestures of hatred” of governments that put obstacles in the humanitarian organizations that rescue in the Mediterranean and warned that it is a “duty of humanity” to help people crossing the sea to Europe. And he reiterated it on Saturday in a long – and harsh – speech at the Religious Meetings in Marseille, a Mediterranean port that has been a crossroads of cultures and religions for centuries, where he wanted to distance himself from politicians who treat the case as an invasion. “Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they seek shelter”, he remarked, stressing that the migratory phenomenon is not an emergency, but “a reality of our time”, which is why European nations should manage it as such.

Hosted by President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte at the Palais Du Pharo, the Pontiff was attended by several authorities, such as the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin – the same one who warned that France would not welcome migrants from Lampedusa; the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, or the vice-president of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, a few days after the EU presented its umpteenth plan on migration.

“There is a cry of pain that is the most resounding of all, and that is turning the mare nostrum into a mare mortuum, the Mediterranean from the cradle of civilization to the tomb of dignity”, he told them. According to data from the International Organization for Migration, more than 2,300 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year. “Marseille has a great port and it is a great door that cannot be closed. Several Mediterranean ports, on the other hand, have been closed. And two words have resonated, fueling people’s fear: “invasion” and “emergency”. But he who risks his life at sea does not invade, he seeks shelter. As for the emergency, the migratory phenomenon is not so much a momentary urgency, always opportune to stir alarmist propaganda, but a reality of our time, a process that involves three continents around the Mediterranean and that must to be governed with wise clairvoyance: with a European responsibility capable of facing the objective difficulties”.

Pope Francis insists on not making state trips to great bastions of Catholicism such as France or Spain, which is why the Vatican emphasized that yesterday’s visit was only to Marseille on the occasion of this meeting, which has brought together bishops from ‘about thirty countries and young people of different nationalities with the aim of promoting communion between believers in the Mediterranean area. However, after the speech, Francesc met for half an hour with Macron, whose Government is due to present a new law on immigration soon. The president, who is agnostic, was heavily criticized in his country, homeland of secularism, for participating in the mass mass that was celebrated in the afternoon with 50,000 people at the Vélodrome stadium. He replied that he attended as a gesture of respect towards the Pontiff, and his team had to specify that “the principles of secularism of the Republic were not violated”. After the Mass, the Argentine Pope wanted to remember the survivors of the attack on July 14, 2016 in Nice, in which 86 people died, and all the victims of the terrorist acts in France. About 100,000 people, according to data from the Holy See, were waiting to see him pass around the stadium, and then Francis flew back to Rome.