The Valley Catholic
IMMIGRATION
By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Before saying a word publicly, Pope Francis made the sign of the cross and tossed a wreath of white and yellow flowers into the Mediterranean Sea in memory of the estimated 20,000 African immigrants who have died in the past 25 years trying to reach a new life in Europe. Just a few hours before Pope Francis arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in July, the Italian coast guard accompanied another boat carrying immigrants to the island’s port. In his homily at an outdoor Mass, Pope Francis said he decided to visit Lampedusa, a small island with a population of 6,000 just 70 miles from Tunisia, after seeing newspaper headlines describing the drowning of immigrants at sea. “Those boats, instead of being a means of hope, were a means of death,” he said. Wearing purple vestments and using prayers from the Mass for the Forgiveness of Sins, Pope Francis said the deaths of the immigrants are “like a thorn in the heart. Who is responsible for the blood of these brothers and sisters? “We have lost a sense of fraternal responsibility” and are acting like those in the Gospel who saw the man who had been beaten, robbed and left on the road half dead, but they kept walking. “The culture of well-being, which leads us to think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of others,” Pope Francis said, adding that the globalization of the world’s economy in many cases has led to “the globalization of indifference.” Still, the pope praised the many Lampedusa residents, as well as volunteers and public security officers who do what they can to help migrants. Traditionally fishers and tourism operators, the people of Lampedusa have spent decades dealing with the impact of immigrant arrivals and political battles over immigration policies.
August 27, 2013
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In Lampedusa, Pope calls for repentance over treatment of migrants
Pope Francis tosses wreath into Mediterranean Sea off coast of Lampedusa, Italy where he memorialized thousands of African immigrants who have died in the past 25 years trying to reach a new life in Europe. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)
Pope Francis arrives at altar to celebrate Mass on Italian island of Lampedusa. He carries a pastoral staff carved from the wood of a shipwrecked boat. The pope called for repentance over treatment of migrants as he visited the Italian island where massive numbers of Africans have landed in attempts to reach Europe. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Italian coast guards instruct immigrants as they disembark from a ship at the port in Lampedusa, Italy the day after Pope Francis visited the island. As pressure to pass an immigration reform bill shifted to the House of Representatives in July, voices speaking out for more humane treatment of migrants included the pope and former President George W. Bush.(CNS photo/Paul Haring)
By Beth Griffin UNITED NATIONS (CNS) — Human-centered migration policy empowers individuals, promotes security and produces the best and most sustainable outcomes for all people involved, according to speakers at a U.N. event in July. The panel discussion on “Human Development, Human Security and Migration” was sponsored by the International Organization for Migration and the Center for Immigration Studies and convened as a side event to hearings on the UN High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development. “Often when we talk about immigration and security, there is a tendency to blame the immigrants or migrants who are not choosing to migrate purely voluntarily. Many migrants, especially in the United States, are economic refugees,” said Lucas Benitez, co-founder of the Coalition of
UN: Migration, development policies must put people at center
Immokalee Workers in Florida. Benitez, a farmer, said he left Mexico for the U.S. when he was displaced by the effects of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA which its critics say created a trade imbalance between the U.S. and Mexico, putting Mexican farmers out of business. He attributed widespread verbal and sexual abuse of migrant workers to economic pressure from corporate agricultural producers. “They place a lot of weight on the quality of the product, but not on the conditions under which it is produced,” he said. Donald M. Kerwin, director of the Center for Migration Studies in New York, said subsidiarity is the best organizational principle for humancentered migration policies. “This concept empowers individuals by pushing down decisions to the persons, groups or competent authority closest to the
issue, most affected by it, and most knowledgeable about it,” he said. He said consideration of human security moves the discussion of migration away from a narrow preoccupation with border control, detention and criminalization of migrants and “focuses instead on issues of insecurity that drive irregular and crisis migration.” Michele Klein Solomon, permanent observer of the International Organization for Migration to the United Nations, said her organization places the individual at the center of its concerns. “It’s a collective and conscious effort to look at human beings with dreams, goals and aspirations,” she said. Environmental factors have become a strong element in the decision to migrate, she said, especially in deforested areas or in small-island developing states with rising sea levels. She said environmental degradation exacerbates existing vulnerabilities.
When the seas are calm, especially when there are wars and political upheaval in northern Africa, desperate people pay traffickers to give them a place on a boat bound for Europe. Usually the boats are rickety and dangerously overcrowded. After getting off the coast guard boat that took him to sea, Pope Francis personally greeted more than 50 immigrants. One of them, speaking Arabic, told the pope that he and his fellow travelers had dealt with several traffickers before reaching Italy. Pope Francis told the crowd at Mass that traffickers “exploit the poverty of others” and are “people for whom the poverty of others is a source of income.” The Mass was filled with reminders that Lampedusa is now synonymous with dangerous attempts to reach Europe: the altar was built over a small boat; the pastoral staff the pope used was carved from wood recycled from a shipwrecked boat; the lectern was made from old wood as well and had a ship’s wheel mounted on the front; and even the chalice — although lined with silver — was carved from the wood of a wrecked boat. “Let us ask the Lord for the grace to weep over our indifference, to weep over the cruelty in the world, in ourselves, and even in those who anonymously make socio-economic decisions that open the way to tragedies like this,” Pope Francis said. Explaining why he chose a penitential liturgy, the pope said, “We ask forgiveness for our indifference toward so many brothers and sisters” and for the ways in which well-being has “anesthetized our hearts.” In addition, the pope prayed for the forgiveness of “those, who with their decisions at the global level, have created situations that lead to these tragedies.” www.dsj.org