PARIS: Pope Francis Saturday said that European governments must do more to care for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, saying “those risking their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome.”
Closing a meeting of bishops and young people from countries around the Mediterranean in the French port city of Marseille, he added that migration is “a reality of our times, a process that involves three continents bordering the Mediterranean and that must be governed with wise foresight, including a European response.”
The pope’s statements – given in front of President Emmanuel Macron, whose administration plans stringent measures to control migration – follow his insistence on arrival in France Friday that “people who are at risk of drowning when abandoned on the waves must be rescued.”
The way Europe addresses significant influx from the Middle East and North Africa has shot up the political agenda since last week, when thousands of people landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa within a few days.
The pope appeared to engage in French domestic politics targeting two of President Macron’s projects assisted dying and the inclusion of the right to abortion in the constitution.
Elderly people risk being “pushed aside, under the guise of a supposedly dignified and ‘sweet’ death that is more ‘salty’ than the waters of the sea,” Francis further added.
The Pope also spoke of “unborn children in the name of a misguided notion of progress, which is instead a retreat into the selfish needs of the individual.”
