Vatican
City, 6 July 2013 (VIS) – This morning Pope Francis visited the
Italian island of Lampedusa, for some years now an entry point for
many immigrants, a significant number of whom have lost their lives
in the surrounding seas.
The
pope left Rome's Ciampino military airport at 8 a.m. arriving at the
island at 9.15 a.m., where he was greeted by Archbishop Francesco
Montenegro of Agrigento and by the mayor of Lampedusa, Giuseppina
Nicolini. He proceeded to Cala Pisana by car, where he boarded a boat
in order to arrive at the Port of Lampedusa by water. The Holy Father
was accompanied by fishermen in their boats. During the journey he
committed a wreath to the sea in memory of those immigrants who have
lost their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean. The Pope's
arrival at the port at Punta Favarolo was awaited by a group of
around fifty immigrants, many of whom were Muslims, living in the
reception shelters in Lampedusa. He greeted them one by one and then
departed by car for the nearby “Arena” sports field in the
Salinas quarter, where at 10.30 a.m. he celebrated Mass.
The
form of the Mass was that “for the forgiveness of sins”, included
in the Missal among the masses for particular needs. The Liturgy of
the Word consisted of readings on the story of Cain and Abel, the
massacre of the innocents, and the Miserere psalm, emphasizing the
penitential aspect of the Liturgy. The Holy Father used a crosier and
chalice from the parish of Lampedusa made of wood from boats by which
immigrants reached the island. Both were the work of an artisan from
Lampedusa, who had offered assistance to the immigrants during the
emergencies.
Given
below are extensive extracts from the Pope's homily:
“Immigrants
dying at sea, in boats which were vehicles of hope and became
vehicles of death. Since I first heard of this tragedy a few weeks
ago, and realised that it happens too frequently, it has constantly
come back to me like a painful thorn in my heart. So, I felt that I
had to come here today, to pray and to offer a sign of my closeness,
but also to challenge our consciences lest this tragedy be repeated.
Please, let it not be repeated!”
The
Pope thanked the inhabitants and the authorities of Lampedusa for
their solidarity with the immigrants and greeted the Muslims among
them who today begin the fast of Ramadan, and added, “The Church is
at your side as you seek a more dignified life for yourselves and
your families”.
“This
morning, in the light of God's Word which has just been proclaimed, I
wish to offer some thoughts to challenge people's consciences, to
lead them to reflection and a concrete change of heart”.
“'Adam,
where are you?' This is the first question God poses to man after his
sin. Adam lost his bearings, his place in creation because he thought
he could be powerful, able to control everything, to be God. Harmony
was lost, man errs and this error occurs over and over again also in
relationships with others. The 'other' who is no longer a brother or
sister to be loved, but simply another person who disturbs our lives
and our comfort. God asks a second question, 'Cain, where is your
brother?'. The illusion of being powerful, of being as great as God,
even of being God Himself, leads to a whole series of errors, a chain
of death, even to the spilling of a brother's blood! God's two
questions echo even today, as forcefully as ever. How many of us,
myself included, have lost our bearings; we are no longer attentive
to the world in which we live … we do not take care of that which
God created for all of us, and we are no longer capable even of
looking after each other. And when humanity as a whole loses its
bearings, it results in tragedies like the one we have witnessed.
“'Where
is your brother?' His blood cries out to me, says the Lord. This is
not a question directed to others, it is a question directed to me,
to you, to each of us. These brothers and sisters of ours were trying
to escape difficult situations to find some serenity and peace; they
sought a better place for themselves and their families, but instead
they found only death. How often do such people fail to find
understanding, fail to find acceptance, fail to find solidarity. And
their cry rises up to God! I recently listened to one of these
brothers of ours. Before arriving here, he and the others were at the
mercy of traffickers, people who exploit the poverty of others,
people who live off the misery of others. How much these people have
suffered! Some of them never made it here.
“'Where
is your brother?' Who is responsible for this blood? In Spanish
literature there is a work by Lope de Vega which narrates how the
inhabitants of the city of Fuente Ovejuna kill their tyrannical
governor, and they do so in a way that no-one knows who carried out
the execution. And when the king's judge asks, 'Who killed the
governor?', they all answer, “Fuente Ovejuna, my lord”. Everybody
and nobody! Today too, this question emerges forcefully: who is
responsible for the blood of these, our brothers and sisters? Nobody!
That is our answer: it isn't me, I don't have anything to do with it;
it must be someone else, but certainly not me. Yet God is asking each
of us: 'Where is the blood of your brother which cries out to me?'.
Today no-one in our world feels responsible; we have lost a sense of
responsibility for our brothers and sisters; we have fallen into the
hypocrisy of the priest and the Levite whom Jesus described in the
parable of the Good Samaritan: we see our brother half dead on the
side of the road, perhaps we say to ourselves: 'poor soul...!', and
then go on our way; it's not our responsibility, and with that we
feel reassured. The culture of comfort, which makes us think only of
ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other people, makes
us live in soap bubbles which, however lovely, are insubstantial;
they offer a fleeting and empty illusion which results in
indifference to others; indeed, it even leads to the globalisation of
indifference. We have become used to the suffering of others, it
doesn't affect me; it doesn't concern me; it is none of my business.
The globalisation of indifference makes us all 'unnamed', responsible
yet nameless and faceless.
“'Adam,
where are you?' 'Where is your brother?' These are the two questions
which God asks at the dawn of human history, and which he also asks
each man and woman in our own day, which he also asks us. But I would
like us to ask a third question: 'Has any one of us wept because of
this situation and others like it?' Has any one of us grieved for the
death of these brothers and sisters? Has any one of us wept for these
persons who were on the boat? For the young mothers carrying their
babies? For these men who were looking for a means of supporting
their families? We are a society which has forgotten how to weep, how
to experience compassion – 'suffering with' others: the
globalization of indifference has taken from us the ability to weep!
In the Gospel we have heard the crying, the wailing, the great
lamentation: 'Rachel weeps for her children… because they are no
more'. Herod sowed death to protect his own comfort, his own soap
bubble. And so it continues… Let us ask the Lord to remove the part
of Herod that lurks in our hearts; let us ask the Lord for the grace
to weep over our indifference, to weep over the cruelty of our world,
of our own hearts, and of all those who in anonymity make social and
economic decisions which open the door to tragic situations like
this.
“In
this liturgy, a penitential liturgy, we beg forgiveness for our
indifference to so many of our brothers and sisters. Father, we ask
your pardon for those who are complacent and closed amid comforts
which have deadened their hearts; we beg your forgiveness for those
who by their decisions on the global level have created situations
that lead to these tragedies”.