As the US celebrated its 250th anniversary, Pope Leo XIV decided instead to visit the Sicilian island of Lampedusa.
Closer to Africa geographically than to Italy, the island is known as a place of sbarchi (sea landings) for thousands immigrants and asylum seekers journeying from Africa to Europe, and a place where thousands of others have died. While there, the pope visited the Door of Europe memorial for migrants who have died on the journey, and prayed at some of their graves.
His homily called on European leaders to rise to the “momentous challenge” of addressing migration. This, he said, should include “receiving, protecting, supporting and integrating migrants” and a move away from “emergency” policies.
Many anticipated the visit would further sour the already tense diplomatic relations between the Trump administration and the Holy See. Leo has already called Trump’s treatment of immigrants “inhuman”.
In June, the pontiff visited the Canary Islands, where he spoke to migrants, telling them “You are not numbers or files, you are people”. Migration and human dignity were also central to his message to Americans on receiving the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal: “The moral greatness of a nation is manifested, above all, in its capacity to support, protect and cherish the lives of all, especially the most vulnerable and those whose worth is questioned.”
His letter to Americans on the 250th anniversary of the US said that the Catholic principle of “defending human life also includes welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants”.
In visiting Lampedusa, Pope Leo explicitly signalled the continuity of his pontificate with that of Pope Francis. Although Lampedusa is in Italy, Pope Francis’ visit to the island in 2013 was regarded as his first “international” trip. The flow of people, cultures and religions traversing this tiny piece of land is truly global, and so are the policy responses that are needed to address it.
Pope Francis made a series of visits to borderlands and areas of crossing and displacement along the Mediterranean. This included trips to migrant and refugee reception and identification centres in Lesbos (2016 and 2021) and to the busy multicultural port-city of Marseille, in 2023.
As Francis pointed out on a 2014 visit to the European parliament, the Mediterranean – once the cradle of civilisation – has become a massive graveyard. According to the Missing Migrants Project, more than 35,000 people have died or been recorded missing attempting to cross the Mediterranean since 2014.
Ciro Fusco/EPA-EFE
Throughout his pontificate, Francis insisted on the need to overcome divisions, othering, tribalism and the “globalisation of indifference” around human life.
The parable of the Good Samaritan, the stranger who tended the wounds of the traveller mugged on the road, featured prominently throughout Francis’s pontificate. Francis also hosted 12 Syrian refugees in the Vatican after his Lesbos visit in 2016.
Popes and migration
Catholic and other faith traditions have a long history of assisting those on the move, whether war refugees, slaves, economic migrants. Francis’s novelty was twofold: the frequency and emphasis of his appeals for the dignity of migrants, and the approach of visiting those on the margins while also speaking up in the international diplomatic context.
Leo XIV has continued Francis’s approach of standing with those on the margins and discarded from society. This is typical of the personalist Catholic tradition that emphasises the importance of human relations.
Leo signalled the centrality of migration to his pontificate when he visited Spain in June, meeting migrants, activists and professionals in Tenerife. He condemned human trafficking and appealed to “human conscience” and “responsibility” to respond from all sectors of society – not just religious or humanitarian bodies.
Pope Leo has also expressed his support for the rights of migrants in relation to US domestic politics. He appointed several bishops who came to the US as migrants, and backed the US bishops who stood up against round-ups by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
His speech in Lampedusa made reference not just to the dignity of migrants, but also the potential of international economic, political and diplomatic solutions: “Europe is capable of addressing the crisis — in this region — in a comprehensive manner … This is a task not only for public institutions but also for civil society as a whole and for the Church.”
Vincenzo Livieri/EPA-EFE
Migration is a global issue, intertwined with conflict, politics and climate change, that cannot be solved by countries individually. The pope’s visit to Lampedusa is therefore not just an example of “compassion” towards others at a time of emergency. It is a message of “serving together” for our common human family, in the imperfect reality of the present.
“God needs no passport”, wrote American sociologist Peggy Levitt in a pioneering book on religion and migration in America. By wearing his hat as head of a global universal faith (and the largest religious institution in the world) and by going to meet those that have crossed perilous waters and borders fleeing violence and insecurity, Leo is bypassing – not countering – the logic of diplomacy and of the state system. When popes go to Lampedusa, the international community should heed the message.
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