Celebrating Mass on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, Pope Leo XIV urged Europe to respond to migration with long-term policies rooted in human dignity.
Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass Saturday on the island of Lampedusa, warning that migrants who have died crossing the Mediterranean are “victims both of decisions that were made and of decisions that were not made.”
In his homily at the Arena sports field July 4, the pope cited the Gospel parable of the Good Samaritan, saying residents of Lampedusa had seen “thousands of human beings fallen into the hands of robbers who have taken everything from them, beat them brutally and walked away, leaving them half-dead.”
“The sea has claimed the lives of others — those who did not manage to reach their hoped-for destination,” he said. “Yet we feel their presence, which challenges us no less than that of those who have landed in need of attention and aid.”
The pope arrived at the sports field in a Fiat Nuova Campagnola convertible, the same vehicle Pope Francis used during his July 8, 2013, visit to Lampedusa. The crowd greeted him with songs, waving arms, and yellow-and-white caps against the backdrop of the island’s sea and sky.
Before the liturgy, Lampedusa’s mayor presented the pope with a model of the island’s lighthouse. Pope Leo recalled Pope Francis’ closeness to the people of Lampedusa and said he had come not primarily to give speeches but to celebrate the Eucharist, the supreme sign of Christ’s presence.
The pope’s homily repeatedly returned to the theme of love — a love made concrete in compassion, hospitality, and the willingness to draw near to those in need.
“The Gospel resounds where peoples meet, people welcome one another, their lives intertwine and different cultures engage in dialogue,” he said. “It falls silent, however, when each person makes him or herself an island, avoiding contact and cutting off exchange.”
Citing the parable of the Good Samaritan, the pope said the encounter with those stripped of everything calls Christians “to be close to them.”
“This is the heart of the Gospel parable: we become neighbors by acting as neighbors,” he said.
Pope Leo thanked the people of Lampedusa for what he called the “miracle of compassion,” including the volunteers, organizations in Forum Lampedusa Solidale, civil authorities, the Coast Guard, local administrations, deacons, priests, religious sisters, doctors, psychologists, educators, security forces, and all those who serve migrants on the island.
“I greet the migrants who are here,” he added. “They themselves have not only received solidarity but have often shown it on their journey, as the poor helping the poorest.”
But the pope also warned against indifference, corruption, fear, prejudice, and policies that fail to respond to the scale of the crisis.
“Indifference to the common good and corruption in their countries of origin; a global economic system that generates poverty and exclusion; fear that fuels prejudice and contempt; the belief that such problems do not concern us; the criminal calculations of those who profit from the suffering of others; the slow and difficult transition from mere emergency management to the development of comprehensive and shared policies — all are present-day echoes of the haste to ‘pass by’ in the Gospel narrative,” he said.
Pope Leo also said religious belonging must never be used to exclude or discriminate.
“It is time to recognize and affirm that religious affiliation must never become a reason for discrimination, as if faith had boundaries rather than being a universal call to salvation,” he said. “There is no love of God without love of neighbor, and there is no neighbor if I do not draw near.”
From Lampedusa, which lies between Sicily and North Africa and has become a symbol of the migration crisis in the Mediterranean, the pope turned his attention to Europe.
“From this far-flung corner of Europe on the Mediterranean Sea, one can more clearly perceive the momentous challenge that the phenomenon of migration poses to European societies,” he said.
Europe, he continued, has “a unique potential” and therefore “a corresponding responsibility” to address migration in a comprehensive way — integrating immediate relief into “a long-term strategic plan capable of receiving, protecting, supporting and integrating migrants,” while also assisting developing countries so that “no one is forced to emigrate.”
The pope said the task belongs not only to public institutions but also to civil society and the Church.
Speaking directly to the people of Lampedusa, he also noted that tourism on the island can risk creating an “invisible wall” between vacationers and migrants who have survived shipwrecks.
“Have the courage to think differently,” he said, urging residents to help visitors become “more humane” through contact with the island’s charity and history.
“There is authentic rest when the meaning of life is rediscovered, and true well-being when the economy is just and fraternal,” the pope said. “In such an economy, care for creation and social friendship come together in a synthesis that humanity is seeking today.”
At the close of his homily, Pope Leo referred to the image of Our Lady of Safe Harbor, patroness of Lampedusa, placed near the altar.
“In God we all have a safe haven, and every Christian community is called to be a reflection of it on earth,” he said. He ended with the traditional local greeting: “O’scià!”
Before the Mass, the pope visited the cemetery of Lampedusa, where he placed flowers on the graves of migrants, pausing especially at the graves of children. The moment was marked by silence and strong wind.
He then went to the Porta d’Europa, the “Gateway to Europe” monument, where he briefly met a migrant family. A child gave him a soccer ball and read him a note.
“Dear pope, I am super excited to meet you. Ten years ago my story began here in Lampedusa. I was alone and had lost everything, especially my mother,” the child wrote.
The child said he had stopped crying only after someone gave him a ball made of paper.
“From that day, the ball has remained in my heart, and I have never stopped playing,” he wrote. “Now I hope that this ball I am giving you can reach another child and make him happy, just like me.”
The pope then moved toward the sea to pray alone. The wind swept away his white zucchetto, which fell into the water as he prayed near the sea.
Before heading to the Arena sports field, Pope Leo visited Molo Favaloro, where he blessed a plaque dedicating the dock to Pope Francis. There he greeted migrants accompanied by the Red Cross, as well as religious sisters who are among the first to welcome migrants arriving on the island.
The visit came a day after the U.S.-born Pope Leo, accepting the Liberty Medal awarded by the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia, recalled how his native land had opened its doors to waves of immigrants, allowing them and their children to help build the nation’s future.
The pope has been critical of Trump administration’s policies on immigration and the coincidence of his visit to Lampedusa with America’s 250th anniversary has been widely noted there.
This story was first published in two parts by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Sources used: ACI Stampa Mass report and official English homily text .
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Searching and finding the divine resting in the migrant is a win-win opportunity for the earnest searcher and the migrant.
And how about the people who are supposed to accept without condition or limit?
Do we have any of the divine resting in us? And I don’t see Leo relenting on Francis’ immigration crackdown.
I missed the part where the Pope offered his condolences to all the European and American victims of Third World terrorists and criminals. His advisors certainly must have told him the story of Henry Nowak, to pull just one example out of many from recent headlines. I’ll have to look up the complete transcript of his remarks.
How strange it is that the first American pope would spend America’s 250th birthday with African and Arab Muslims who think they are entitled to break into countries where they don’t belong to murder, rape, and rob. Granted, most simply want to collect welfare and benefit from affirmative action while they wreck a civilization they despise. The Catholic Church hierarchy is very much part of the globalist order that seeks the destruction of the West and its people. What Francis made official, Leo apparently intends to continue.
The tragedy is magnified by the fact that the poor reasoning of those attempting to leave their native nations, encouraged and magnified by nations with loose immigration enforcement, led to the unnecessary loss of their own precious lives.
The solution for uncontrolled migration is to be found in the nations bleeding their populations, not in countries unwilling to enforce reasonable immigration laws.
The Church has contributed to this ongoing tragedy by indulging in protracted adolescent rationalizations substituting for Gospel values. It is a concrete example of the inadequacy of post-conciliar ecclesial “reasoning.”
See below the horrific figures. 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)
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/sex-crime-rises-across-europe-as-western-nations-top-the-list/
SEX 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.
“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/
What Pope Leo seems oblivious to in states other than his own Vatican city-state:
GERMANY: NEARLY TWO GANG RAPES PER DAY IN 2021; HALF THE SUSPECTS FOREIGNERS
Germany recorded nearly two gang rapes per day in 2021, up 120% from 2018, with non-German citizens—despite composing less than 13% of the population—representing almost every second group rape suspect, official statistics from the federal government have revealed.
NECLA KELEK, A TURKISH-BORN GERMAN FEMINIST, AUTHOR, AND SOCIOLOGIST HAS PREVIOUSLY SHINED A LIGHT ON THE ISSUE, CALLING ON THE GOVERNMENT TO FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THE ROLE MASS MIGRATION HAS PLAYED IN GERMANY’S ONGOING—AND CONTINUALLY WORSENING—RAPE PROBLEM.
“Migration research must question how a young girl can become a victim of men who come from another cultural area,” Kelek said. “Gang rape is the worst thing that can happen to a woman. If society leaves them alone with this, the soul is almost wiped out.”
The appalling figures, released by the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (BKA) following a request from Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) MP Stephan Bradner, revealed that a total of 677 gang rapes were recorded last year, up from 300 in 2018, making for an average of 1.86 every day, the German newspaper Junge Freiheit reports.
“It is a matter of imported crime and criminals,” AfD MP Bradner began. “The Federal Government itself points out that suspects who have other nationalities in addition to German are classified as only German. Therefore, the actual proportion of foreigners among the perpetrators is well over 50%.”
The Thuringian AfD lawmaker, who formerly served as the chairman of the Bundestag’s Legal Affairs Committee, then called on Germany’s radical left-liberal interior minister to “finally address this issue and fight resolutely to ensure that such conditions no longer exist in Germany.”
The newly released data comes roughly two months after last year’s report, also published by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), which showed that in 2020 an average of two girls or women were the victims of group rape per day, with foreigners composing half of the suspected perpetrators.
A few months ago, in March, the German federal government published statistics that showed the percentage of foreign suspects in sexual offense cases has sharply risen in the past two decades from 35% in 2000 to more than 42% in 2022.
In the same report, the Federal Statistical Office also indicated that from 2009 to 2020 the proportion of non-German suspects in group sexual assault cases grew from 29.55% to 41.18%, while recorded cases of sexual assault jumped from 35% to 50%.
Speaking on the shocking figures, the AfD parliamentarian said: “The proportion of non-German suspects in crimes of a sexual nature, such as rape, is staggering. Women, in particular, could have been spared a great deal of suffering if the borders had not been open to everyone.”
But it is not only AfD politicians who are drawing attention to this deeply worrying issue. Prominent women’s rights activists have also called attention to the disproportionate role foreigners from alien cultures play in Germany’s seemingly ever-expanding gang rape problem.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/germany-nearly-two-gang-rapes-per-day/