Visiting the island of Lesbos, Pope Francis denounces a “shipwreck of civilization”

“Let’s stop this sinking of civilization!” “. This is the appeal, launched this Sunday, December 5, by Pope Francis on his arrival in the migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. Welcomed by many families and exiled children, welcoming him “welcome”, the Sovereign Pontiff pleaded in favor of better integration of migrants in a Europe which, according to him, is struggling to show its solidarity.

The second day of his trip to Greece is marked by a whirlwind visit to the Mavrovouni camp, which still houses nearly 2,200 asylum seekers, in difficult conditions. In a rousing speech he said that the Mediterranean “is becoming a cold cemetery without tombstones”.

“Welcome! “

In a very warm atmosphere, the Holy Father greeted and blessed the families present at length, including many children. “Welcome! “,” We love you “, we could hear. Nearly 900 police officers have been deployed to the Greek island. Banners here and there had flourished in the city of Mytilene and around the camp to welcome “Pope Francis” or denounce the alleged refoulements of migrants to Turkey.

Forty asylum seekers, mostly Catholics from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are due to attend the Angelus and the speech that the Pope will deliver in a tent, in the presence of several religious leaders and the Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas and Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi.

“We are humans, not prisoners”

Christian Tango, a 31-year-old Congolese, must address the Pope. He “hopes that the Pope will carry the voice” of migrants “throughout the world and in particular to European countries which must welcome refugees with more humanity,” he told AFP on Saturday. “It’s a blessing this coming. The Pope is our spiritual leader, ”Congolese Rosette Leo told AFP on Sunday, while awaiting the arrival of the sovereign pontiff.

His compatriot Orphée Madouda, who is going to attend the prayer, rejoices: “This is the first time that I am going to meet the Pope, I do not think that I would have the opportunity to see him again in my life”. “We are humans, we the refugees”, he protested to AFP, “we must be treated like humans and not like prisoners”.

A return to Rome?

Some hope to return with the sovereign pontiff to Rome. François had brought twelve Syrians with him in 2016. And fifty migrants will be transferred from Cyprus, where he has just spent two days. The possibility that some asylum seekers from Mavrovouni could accompany him to Italy has not been ruled out.

In the open air, the tent camp was hastily erected a year ago, on a former army firing range on the Aegean island, when the structure of Moria, then the largest in Europe, was destroyed by flames. When the island of Lesbos was the main gateway for tens of thousands of migrants to Europe, François had visited Moria in April 2016 and symbolically said: “We are all migrants”.

A call for solidarity

Leitmotif of his pontificate, the cause of refugees once again remains the cornerstone of the Pope’s 35th trip. Jorge Bergoglio, himself from a family of Italian migrants settled in Argentina, never ceases to advocate the reception of thousands of “brothers and sisters”, without distinguishing between religion, nor refugee or refugee status. economic exile.

On Saturday, Francis called the migrants “protagonists of a terrible modern odyssey” in a speech to Greek leaders. The 84-year-old Argentine pontiff also regretted that “Europe persists in procrastinating” in the face of the arrivals of migrants “sometimes blocked” and “torn apart by nationalist egoisms”, “instead of being a motor of solidarity”. He was speaking in Athens, where it was the first visit of a pope in 20 years.

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