A few days away from the likely inauguration of the far-right Giorgia Meloni as Italy’s new prime minister, Pope Francis defended immigrants emphatically this Sunday (9) and said that the exclusion of people is something “scandalous, disgusting and sinful”.
The statement by the leader of the Catholic Church goes against the rhetoric adopted by Meloni during the election campaign. She is the leader of the Brothers of Italy, an acronym that won the election last month with a nationalist flag and proposals that include a naval blockade to curb immigration and against what she calls the “Islamization of Europe”.
The pontiff’s statements this Sunday, therefore, sound like a message to Meloni, who is expected to assume the post of premier later this month.
“The exclusion of migrants is scandalous. In fact, the exclusion of migrants is criminal. It causes them to die in front of us”, said the Pope in St. 1905), who founded two congregations dealing with immigrants, and Artemides Zatti (1880-1951), an Italian immigrant who lived in Argentina.
“And today the Mediterranean is the biggest cemetery in the world,” he added, referring to thousands of people drowning trying to reach Europe. “The exclusion of migrants is repugnant, it is sinful. It is criminal not to open doors to the needy.”
Without mentioning Italy, Pope Francis said that some migrants forced to return to their countries of origin are placed in “concentration camps, where they are exploited and treated like slaves”. In the past, the pontiff said that this happened in Libya.
The Ukrainian War was another topic discussed by the Pope at the ceremony. He called for peace and said the world needs to learn from history, in reference to the threats of the use of nuclear weapons made in the conflict.
The pontiff also prayed for victims of what he called a “crazy act of violence” in Thailand, where an expelled police officer killed 36 people, including 24 children. The Vatican reported that approximately 50,000 worshipers attended Sunday’s mass.
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