While flying to Marseille to attend a meeting, a Reuters photojournalist showed Pope Francis a photo of an infant in Lampedusa, moving the pontiff.

Nardi, who was traveling with the pope, gave him the photo, in large size, while he greeted reporters.

The photo, which Nardi took last week in Lampedusa, is a close-up of the eyes of Prince, an 18-month-old infant who arrived with his mother, Claudine Nsoe, from Cameroon after sailing across the Mediterranean.

Nardi said the day before the trip to Marseille she was tidying up her file, as she often does before an expedition. “I saw the photo I took in Lampedusa and suddenly felt like I had to show it to the pope“, explained.

“She got emotional as soon as I took her out of the envelope,” the reporter said, adding that there was silence among the passengers.

The pontiff commented: “They are kept in concentration camps in Libya and then thrown into the sea.”

“He shook my hand and held the picture,” Nardi said.

Today, Francis condemned “aggressive nationalism” and called for a pan-European response to immigration so that the Mediterranean does not turn into the “graveyard of our dignity”.

The 86-year-old pontiff, who was welcomed at Megaro Faro by the president Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigittedelivered a long speech that concluded the “Mediterranean Meetings”, the official reason for his visit to the city, attended by 70 bishops and an equal number of young people from all over the Mediterranean.