“No words can express the deepest pain I feel today as a human being and as a clergyman for the untimely and tragic loss of dozens of our fellow human beings in the shipwreck in international waters off Pylos.

The exact same pain is felt today by all Greeks, who cry in front of the unspeakable drama of these people, who sought a better tomorrow for themselves and their families and a better fortune, far from absolute poverty and misery, a fortune that it was lost forever at the bottom of the Mediterranean”, said a little while ago the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Hieronymos about the tragic shipwreck in international waters off Pylos.

Then, His Beatitude emphasized: “Because human lives are not expendable, they are neither numbers nor statistics. They are unique and precious, all equally great and important to the Creator. They are mothers, fathers and children, siblings, relatives and friends, as we all are, without distinction and without exception.

I wish and pray that God will grant that, with the heroic efforts of the self-exaggerating rescue teams, the losses will be limited. I wish and pray that God rests the souls of the innocent victims. But I hope and pray that today’s tragedy will finally be the last.

The leaders of the European Union and the powerful of this world must now rise to the occasion and decisively give a free shot to the despicable circuits of the criminal traffickers of weak and desperate people and, at the same time, the solutions of solidarity and humanity in the immigration and refugee situation issue, which honor the principles and values ​​of our culture».