Pope Francis emphasized on Saturday that the governments of Europe ought to do more to help migrants who are traveling across the Mediterranean, stating that “those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome.”
He added that migration is “a reality of our times, a process that involves three continents around the Mediterranean and that must be governed with wise foresight, including a European response” as he concluded a gathering of bishops and young people from all over the Mediterranean in the French port city of Marseille.
The pope made his comments in front of President Emmanuel Macron, whose administration is planning tighter steps to limit migration, after insisting upon his arrival in France on Friday that “People who are abandoned on the waves and at risk of drowning must be rescued.”
Since last week, when thousands of migrants arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in just a few days, the issue of how Europe handles huge numbers of arrivals from the Middle East and North Africa has risen sharply on the political agenda.
The pope also appeared to weigh in on French internal politics by criticizing two of Macron’s initiatives, including the legalization of assisted suicide and the right to an abortion.
Francis cautioned that elderly people run the risk of being “ignored, under the false pretense of a supposedly dignified and’sweet’ death that is more’salty’ than the waters of the sea.”
Along with that, he mentioned “unborn children, rejected in the name of a false right to progress, which is actually a retreat into the selfish needs of the individual.”
