By Only about 80 miles from Tunisia, Lampedusa is a main gateway for Africans escaping poverty and violence to enter the continent of Europe.
Pope Leo XIV will follow in his predecessor Pope Francis’ footsteps with a visit to a major migrant landing point, the Italian island of Lampedusa, on July 4.
Continuing his summer of day trips in Italy, the first U.S.-born pope will spend the U.S. Independence Day greeting immigrants, celebrating Mass, and visiting the tombs of Africans who have died at sea while making the dangerous boat crossing to Europe.
Lampedusa, which is part of the Italian region of Sicily, is only about 80 miles from Tunisia and a main gateway for Africans escaping poverty and violence to enter the continent of Europe.
When Pope Francis traveled to Lampedusa on July 8, 2013, his first official trip outside of Rome, the small island was experiencing frequent landings of boats carrying hundreds of migrants and refugees from Africa — those who managed to survive the deadly crossing in search of a better life.
During his visit, Francis celebrated Mass at an altar made from a migrant boat and threw a wreath of white and yellow flowers into the sea to remember those who had lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea.
Commenting on the capsize of a dingy carrying migrants in the Strait of Sicily just weeks beforehand, the pope said he was saddened by a tragedy that “has been repeated so many times.”
“I felt I had to come here today to pray. To show my solidarity, but also to awaken our consciences, so that what happened will not happen again. Please, let it not happen again,” he urged.
Just months later, in October 2013, at least 300 people died when a boat carrying more than 500 migrants, mostly from Eritrea and Somalia, sank off the coast of Lampedusa.
The same year, one of the island’s southern beaches was voted the world’s best beach by travel site TripAdvisor, underlining Lampedusa’s contrasting identities as both a migrant landing point and popular summer beach destination.
Now, Pope Leo will fly to the same island, whose 6,000 permanent inhabitants are inundated every year by tens of thousands of immigrants who arrive on boats run by people smugglers — the same human traffickers Leo forcefully denounced last month during a visit to another major European port of entry, the island of Tenerife, in Spain.
“Repent while there is still time,” he said, “for God’s mercy can reach even the most hardened sinner, but it enters only through the narrow gate of truth, justice, and conversion.”
The day before, the Holy Father also addressed immigration at the port of Arguineguín, on the coast of Gran Canaria. Human dignity, he said, “requires legal and safe routes, rescue and assistance, real cooperation against traffickers, effective protection for victims, serious processes of welcome and integration, and policies that allow each person to live with dignity in his or her own land.”
While the numbers are lower than the height of the migrant crisis more than a decade ago, Lampedusa continues to be the main port of disembarkation for migrants in Italy, with more than 49,500 refugees and migrants landing on its coasts in 2025, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
Leo will mark this reality on July 4 with a stop at the Gateway to Europe memorial, a 16-foot-tall terracotta and iron arch situated on the tip of Cavallo Bianco, a cliff facing south toward Tunisia, not far from the island’s commercial port.
He will also leave flowers at the tombs of shipwreck victims and address migrants at Favaloro Pier, which will be renamed in honor of Pope Francis.
The morning will conclude with the celebration of Mass, where an image of the island’s patroness, Our Lady of Portosalvo (“safe port” in English), will be present.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
.jpg?w=800)
“Vatican Promises Stiff Penalties for Illegal Aliens Crossing its Border”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/01/16/vatican-promises-stiff-penalties-for-illegal-aliens-crossing-its-border/
Pope Leo XIV to spend July 4 with INVADERS on Italian island of Lampedusa.
FIFY, you’re welcome.
Walk the Walk Pope Leo, don’t just visit and demand others accept the invasion, accept a few in YOUR country.
This is like when college kids used to spent the night our doors to show “solidarity” with what was then called “homelessness” (forgotten the minute Bill Clinton became President), usually with TV cameras covering their activities, and nobody questioning how authentic this was when they all knew the next day-back to the comforts of the dorm and the meal plan their parents paid for.
Migrants are pilgrims on journey. To honor and respect the gift of life in them, migrants take all risks, face dangers and discomforts in their search for a conducive space on God’s Holy Ground.
See horrific figures below. No wonder that he talks the talk, but in his own state the Pope tolerates no illegal immigrants (See at the end of this post the harsh penalties the Vatican imposes on illegal aliens)
SEX CRIMES AND OTHER CRIME RISE IN HIGH- IMMIGRATION WESTERN EUROPE
Figures reveal a widening divide between high immigration and high-crime Western states and low or no immigration and far lower crime rates in Central and Eastern Europe.
New figures from Eurostat show that sexual violence offences across Europe continued to rise in 2024, with sharp differences between Western and Eastern countries likely to intensify debate over the link between crime and migration.
Police recorded 256,302 sexual violence offences in 2024, including 98,190 cases of rape. This represents a 5% increase in sexual violence overall and a 7% rise in rape compared with 2023.
Over the past decade, the trend has been sharply upward: sexual violence offences have nearly doubled since 2014, while rape cases have surged by 150%.
A breakdown by population highlights striking regional disparities.
Nordic and Western European countries dominate the top of the list, with Sweden reporting 200.98 cases of sexual violence per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Iceland, Finland, France, and Belgium.
By contrast, several Central and Eastern European countries report significantly lower rates, including Hungary (5.10), Lithuania (5.79), and North Macedonia (7.17).
Similar patterns appear in other categories of crime. Spain, Belgium, Portugal, France, and Germany rank among the highest for robbery, burglary, and theft, while Montenegro, Slovakia, and Hungary sit at the lower end.
Drug-related offences also show similar gaps, with Sweden, France, and Belgium reporting far higher rates than countries such as Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia.
RISING CRIME LEVELS IN WESTERN EUROPE HAVE BEEN INCREASINGLY LINKED TO INCREASED MIGRATION. REPORTS FROM COUNTRIES SUCH AS SPAIN, ITALY, FRANCE, AND GERMANY HAVE INDICATED THAT FOREIGN NATIONALS ARE OVERREPRESENTED AMONG SUSPECTS IN CERTAIN CATEGORIES OF VIOLENT CRIME.
IN FRANCE, NON-EUROPEAN FOREIGNERS MAKE UP 5.7% OF THE FRENCH POPULATION, BUT ACCOUNT FOR 14% OF HOMICIDES AND UP TO 30% OF VEHICLE THEFTS.
IN SEVERAL GERMAN STATES, INCLUDING BAVARIA, BERLIN, AND BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG, ROUGHLY HALF OF ALL SUSPECTS IN VIOLENT CRIMES ARE NON-GERMAN NATIONALS.
AS WE REPORTED EARLIER, REPORTS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE HAVE INCREASED ALONGSIDE RISING IMMIGRATION LEVELS IN COUNTRIES SUCH AS SPAIN, ITALY, FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND GERMANY.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/sex-crime-rises-across-europe-as-western-nations-top-the-list/
“Vatican Promises Stiff Penalties for Illegal Aliens Crossing its Border”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/01/16/vatican-promises-stiff-penalties-for-illegal-aliens-crossing-its-border/