Pope Francis says "be a lighthouse of peace, in order to pierce, through the culture of encounter, the dark abysses of violence and war.”" FULL TEXT in Marseille
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APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS FRANCIS
in MARSEILLE - for the conclusion of the “Rencontres Méditerranéennes”
[22 - 23 SEPTEMBER 2023]
CONCLUSIVE SESSION OF THE “RENCONTRES MÉDITERRANÉENNES”
SPEECH OF THE HOLY FATHER
“Palais du Pharo” (Marseille) on Saturday, September 23, 2023
in MARSEILLE - for the conclusion of the “Rencontres Méditerranéennes”
[22 - 23 SEPTEMBER 2023]
CONCLUSIVE SESSION OF THE “RENCONTRES MÉDITERRANÉENNES”
SPEECH OF THE HOLY FATHER
“Palais du Pharo” (Marseille) on Saturday, September 23, 2023
Pope Francis’ long address morning at the closing session of the week-long Mediterranean Meetings at the Palais du Pharo in Marseille, which was attended by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron. For seven days, over 120 representatives of Churches and young people from the five shores of the Mediterranean Sea discussed the current political, economic, and environmental challenges of the region, but also their hopes for the future, with a special focus on the current migration crisis. Indeed, the Pope said, echoing the words of the now Venerable late mayor of Florence, Giorgio La Pira, who inspired the Mediterranean Meetings initiative, the Mediterranean is “the beginning and foundation of peace among all the nations of the world”, a concentration of people, beliefs and traditions, similar to the Sea of Galilee where Jesus proclaimed the Beatitudes.
________________________________________
Mr President of the Republic,
dear brother Bishops,
illustrious Mayors and Authorities representing cities and territories bordered by the Mediterranean Sea,
friends and all friends!
I greet you cordially, grateful to each of you for having accepted Cardinal Aveline's invitation to participate in these meetings. Thank you for your work and for the valuable reflections you have shared. After Bari and Florence, the path to the service of the Mediterranean peoples progresses: here too, ecclesiastical and civil leaders are together not to negotiate mutual interests, but animated by the desire to take care of man; thank you for doing it with young people, the present and future of the Church and society.
The city of Marseille is very old. Founded by Greek navigators who came from Asia Minor, the myth traces it back to the love story between an emigrant sailor and a native princess. Since its origins it has had a composite and cosmopolitan character: it welcomes the riches of the sea and gives a homeland to those who no longer have one. Marseille tells us that, despite the difficulties, conviviality is possible and is a source of joy. On the map, between Nice and Montpellier, it almost seems to draw a smile; and I like to think of it like this: Marseille is "the smile of the Mediterranean". I would therefore like to offer you some thoughts around three realities that characterize Marseille: the sea, the port and the lighthouse. There are three symbols.
1. The sea. A sea of peoples has made this city a mosaic of hope, with its great multi-ethnic and multicultural tradition, represented by the more than 60 Consulates present on its territory. Marseille is a city that is both plural and singular, as it is its plurality, the result of an encounter with the world, that makes its history singular. Today we often hear it repeated that Mediterranean history is a mixture of conflicts between different civilisations, religions and visions. Let's not ignore the problems – there are them! –, but let's not be fooled: the exchanges between peoples have made the Mediterranean a cradle of civilisation, a sea overflowing with treasures, to the point that, as a great French historian wrote, it is not «a landscape, but countless landscapes. Not a sea, but a succession of seas"; «for millennia everything has flowed into it, complicating and enriching its history» (F. Braudel, La Méditerranée, Paris 1985, 16). The mare nostrum is a meeting space: between the Abrahamic religions; between Greek, Latin and Arabic thought; between science, philosophy and law, and between many other realities. He conveyed to the world the high value of the human being, endowed with freedom, open to the truth and in need of salvation, who sees the world as a wonder to be discovered and a garden to be inhabited, in the sign of a God who makes alliances with others men.
A great mayor saw in the Mediterranean not a conflictual issue, but a response of peace, indeed "the beginning and foundation of peace between all the nations of the world" (G. La Pira, Words at the conclusion of the first Mediterranean Colloquium, 6 October 1958). In fact, he said: «The answer […] is possible if we consider the common historical and so to speak permanent vocation that Providence has assigned in the past, assigns in the present and, in a certain sense, will assign in the future to peoples and nations who live on the shores of this mysterious enlarged Lake Tiberias which is the Mediterranean" (Opening speech of the First Mediterranean Colloquium, 3 October 1958). Lake Tiberias, or Sea of Galilee, a place in which, at the time of Christ, a great variety of populations, cults and traditions were concentrated. Precisely there, in the "Galilee of the Gentiles" (see Mt 4:15) crossed by the Sea Road, most of Jesus' public life took place. A multifaceted and in many ways unstable context was the site of the universal announcement of the Beatitudes , in the name of a God Father of all, who "makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust" (Mt 5:45). It was also the invitation to broaden the frontiers of the heart, overcoming ethnic and cultural barriers. Here then is the answer that comes from the Mediterranean: this perennial Sea of Galilee invites us to oppose the divisiveness of conflicts with the "conviviality of differences" (T. Bello, Benedette inquietudini, Milan 2001, 73). The mare nostrum, at the crossroads between North and South, between East and West, concentrates the challenges of the entire world, as evidenced by its "five shores", on which you have reflected: North Africa, the Near East, the Black-Aegean Sea, the Balkans and Latin Europe. It is an outpost of challenges that affect everyone: let's think of the climate one, with the Mediterranean representing a hotspot where changes are felt more rapidly; how important it is to safeguard the Mediterranean scrub, a treasure chest of biodiversity! In short, this sea, an environment that offers a unique approach to complexity, is a "mirror of the world" and carries within itself a global vocation to brotherhood, a unique vocation and the only way to prevent and overcome conflicts.
Brothers and sisters, in today's sea of conflicts, we are here to enhance the contribution of the Mediterranean, so that it becomes a laboratory of peace again. Because this is the vocation, to be a place where different countries and realities meet on the basis of the humanity that we all share, not of the ideologies that oppose each other. Yes, the Mediterranean expresses a thought that is not uniform and ideological, but multifaceted and adherent to reality; a vital, open and conciliatory thought: a community thought, that's the word. How much we need it in the current situation, where antiquated and belligerent nationalisms want to destroy the dream of the community of nations! But - let's remember - war is waged with weapons, not peace, and with the greed for power we always return to the past, we do not build the future.
So where should we start to establish peace? On the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus began by giving hope to the poor, proclaiming them blessed: he listened to their needs, healed their wounds, and first of all proclaimed to them the good news of the Kingdom. We need to start again from there, from the often silent cry of the last, not from the first in the class who, despite being well, raise their voices. Let us start again, Church and civil community, from listening to the poor, who "embrace each other, not count each other" (P. Mazzolari, The word to the poor, Bologna 2016, 39), because they are faces, not numbers. The change of pace of our communities lies in treating them as brothers whose stories we know, not as annoying problems, chasing them away, sending them home; it lies in welcoming them, not in hiding them; in integrating them, not in evicting them; in giving them dignity. And Marseille, I want to repeat, is the capital of the integration of peoples. This is your pride! Today the sea of human coexistence is polluted by precariousness, which also hurts the splendid Marseille. And where there is precariousness there is crime: where there is material, educational, working, cultural and religious poverty, the terrain of mafias and illicit trafficking is leveled. The commitment of the institutions alone is not enough, we need a leap of conscience to say "no" to illegality and "yes" to solidarity, which is not a drop in the ocean, but the indispensable element to purify its waters.
In fact, the real social evil is not so much the growth of problems, but the decrease in care. Who today acts as a neighbor to young people left to their own devices, easy prey to crime and prostitution? Who takes care of it? Who is close to the people enslaved by a job that should make them freer? Who takes care of scared families, fearful of the future and of bringing new creatures into the world? Who listens to the groan of lonely elderly people who, instead of being valued, are parked, with the falsely dignified prospect of a sweet death, in reality saltier than the waters of the sea? Who thinks of unborn children, rejected in the name of a false right to progress, which is instead a regression in the needs of the individual? Today we have the tragedy of confusing children with dogs. My secretary told me that, passing through St. Peter's Square, he had seen some women carrying children in prams... but they weren't children, they were dogs! This confusion tells us something bad. Who looks with compassion beyond their own shore to hear the cries of pain rising from North Africa and the Middle East? How many people live immersed in violence and suffer situations of injustice and persecution! And I think of many Christians, often forced to leave their lands or to live there without having their rights recognized, without enjoying full citizenship. Please, let us commit ourselves so that those who are part of society can become full citizens. And then there is a cry of pain that resonates most of all, and which is transforming the mare nostrum into mare mortuum, the Mediterranean from the cradle of civilization to the tomb of dignity. It is the suffocated cry of migrant brothers and sisters, to which I would like to pay attention by reflecting on the second image that Marseille offers us, that of its port.
2. The port of Marseille has been a door open to the sea, France and Europe for centuries. From here many have left to find work and a future abroad, and from here many have crossed the door of the continent with baggage full of hope. Marseille has a large port and is a large door, which cannot be closed. Various Mediterranean ports, however, have closed. And two words resonated, fueling people's fears: "invasion" and "emergency". And the ports close. But those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they seek hospitality, they seek life. As for the emergency, the migratory phenomenon is not so much a temporary emergency, always good for spreading alarmist propaganda, but a fact of our times, a process that involves three continents around the Mediterranean and which must be governed with wise foresight: with a European responsibility capable of facing objective difficulties. I am looking, here, on this map, at the privileged ports for migrants: Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Italy and Spain... They overlook the Mediterranean and receive migrants. The mare nostrum cries out for justice, with its shores which on one side exude opulence, consumerism and waste, while on the other there is poverty and precariousness. Here too the Mediterranean reflects the world, with the South turning towards the North, with many developing countries, afflicted by instability, regimes, wars and desertification, which look to the wealthy ones, in a globalized world in which we are all connected but the gaps have never been so deep. Yet, this situation is not new in recent years, and this Pope from the other side of the world is not the first to feel it with urgency and concern. The Church has spoken about it in heartfelt tones for more than fifty years.
The Second Vatican Council had recently ended and Saint Paul VI, in the Encyclical Populorum Progressio, wrote: «The people of hunger today are calling dramatically upon the people of opulence. The church is startled by this cry of anguish and calls everyone to respond with love to their brother" (n. 3). Pope Montini listed "three duties" of the most developed nations, "rooted in human and supernatural brotherhood": "duty of solidarity, that is, the help that rich nations must give to developing countries; duty of social justice, i.e. the reconciliation in more correct terms of the defective commercial relations between strong and weak peoples; universal duty of charity, that is, the promotion of a more human world for all, a world in which everyone has something to give and receive, without the progress of some constituting an obstacle to the development of others" (n. 44). In the light of the Gospel and these considerations, Paul VI, in 1967, underlined the "duty of welcome", on which, he wrote, "we will never insist enough" (n. 67). To this, fifteen years earlier, Pius XII had encouraged, writing that «the Family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus, Mary and Joseph emigrants in Egypt […] are the model, the example and the support of all the emigrants and pilgrims of of every age and of every country, of all refugees of any condition who, pressed by persecution or need, find themselves forced to abandon their homeland, their dear relatives, [...] and to go to a foreign land" (Apostolic Constitution Exsul Familia de spiritual emigrantium cura, 1 August 1952).
Of course, the difficulties in welcoming people are clear for all to see. Migrants must be welcomed, protected or accompanied, promoted and integrated. If we don't get to the end, the migrant ends up in the orbit of society. Welcomed, accompanied, promoted and integrated: this is the style. It is true that it is not easy to have this style or to integrate unexpected people, but the main criterion cannot be the maintenance of one's own well-being, but rather the safeguarding of human dignity. Those who take refuge with us should not be seen as a burden to bear: if we consider them brothers, they will appear to us above all as gifts. Tomorrow we will celebrate World Migrant and Refugee Day. Let us allow ourselves to be touched by the story of many of our brothers and sisters in difficulty, who have the right both to emigrate and not to emigrate, and let us not withdraw into indifference. History calls us to take a leap of conscience to prevent the collapse of civilization. The future, in fact, will not be in closure, which is a return to the past, a U-turn in the path of history. Against the terrible scourge of the exploitation of human beings, the solution is not to reject, but to ensure, according to each individual's possibilities, a large number of legal and regular entries, sustainable thanks to fair reception on the part of the European continent, in the context of a collaboration with the countries of origin. Saying "enough", however, is closing your eyes; attempting to "save oneself" now will turn into a tragedy tomorrow, when future generations will thank us if we have been able to create the conditions for essential integration, while they will blame us if we have only favored sterile assimilations. Integration, even of migrants, is tiring, but far-sighted: it prepares the future which, like it or not, will be together or not; assimilation, which does not take differences into account and remains rigid in its own paradigms, instead makes the idea prevail over reality and compromises the future, increasing distances and causing ghettoisation, which causes hostility and intolerance to flare up. We need brotherhood like bread. The same word "brother", in its Indo-European derivation, reveals a root linked to nutrition and sustenance. We will only support ourselves by nourishing the weakest with hope, welcoming them as brothers. “Do not forget hospitality” (Heb 13:2), Scripture tells us. And in the Old Testament it is repeated: the widow, the orphan and the stranger. The three duties of charity: assisting the widow, assisting the orphan and assisting the foreigner, the migrant.
In this regard, the port of Marseille is also a “gate of faith”. According to tradition, Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus landed here and spread the Gospel in these lands. Faith comes from the sea, as recalled by the evocative Marseille tradition of Candlemas with the maritime procession. Lazarus, in the Gospel, is the friend of Jesus, but it is also the name of the protagonist of one of his very current parables, which opens our eyes to the inequality that corrodes brotherhood and speaks to us of the Lord's predilection for the poor. Well, we Christians, who believe in God made man, in the one and inimitable Man who on the shores of the Mediterranean called himself way, truth and life (see John 14:6), cannot accept that the paths of encounter are closed . Let's not close the ways of meeting, please! We cannot accept that the truth of the god of money prevails over the dignity of man, that life turns into death! The Church, confessing that God in Jesus Christ "has united himself in a certain way with every man" (Gaudium et spes, 22), believes, with Saint John Paul II, that his way is man (see Encyclical Letter. Redemptor hominis, 14). She adores God and serves the most fragile, who are her treasures. Worshiping God and serving others, this is what counts: not social relevance or numerical consistency, but fidelity to the Lord and to man!
This is Christian testimony, and many times it is even heroic; I think for example of Saint Charles de Foucauld, "universal brother", of the martyrs of Algeria, but also of many charity workers today. In this scandalously evangelical lifestyle, the Church finds the safe harbor to dock at and from which to set off again to weave bonds with the people of every people, seeking everywhere for traces of the Spirit and offering what it has received by grace. Here is the purest reality of the Church, here - Bernanos wrote - "the Church of the saints", adding that "all this great apparatus of wisdom, of strength, of elastic discipline, of magnificence and majesty, is nothing in itself, if charity does not animate him" (Jeanne relapse et sainte, Paris 1994, 74). I like to exalt this French perspicacity, believing and creative genius, who affirmed these truths through a multitude of gestures and writings. Saint Caesareus of Arles said: «If you have charity, you have God; and if you have God, what do you lack?” (Sermo 22,2). Pascal recognized that "the only object of Scripture is charity" (Thoughts, n. 301) and that "the truth outside of charity is not God, but is his image and an idol that must not be loved or adored" ( Thoughts, n. 767). And Saint John Cassian, who died here, wrote that "everything, even what is considered useful and necessary, is worth less than that good which is peace and charity" (Spiritual Conferences XVI,6).
It is beautiful therefore that Christians are second to none in charity; and that the Gospel of charity is the magna carta of pastoral care. We are not called to regret past times or to redefine an ecclesial relevance, we are called to bear witness: not to embroider the Gospel with words, but to give it flesh; not to measure visibility, but to spend ourselves in gratuitousness, believing that "the measure of Jesus is love without measure" (Homily, 23 February 2020). Saint Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles who spent a good part of his life on the Mediterranean routes, from one port to another, taught that to fulfill the law of Christ it is necessary to bear one another's burdens (see Gal 6:2). Dear brother Bishops, let us not burden people, but let us ease their efforts in the name of the Gospel of mercy, to joyfully distribute the relief of Jesus to a tired and wounded humanity. The Church is not a set of prescriptions, the Church is a port of hope for the disheartened. Broaden your heart, please! May the Church be a port of refreshment, where people feel encouraged to set out into life with the incomparable strength of the joy of Christ. The Church is not a customs house. Let us remember the Lord: everyone, everyone, everyone is invited.
3. And so I come briefly to the last image, that of the lighthouse. It illuminates the sea and shows the port. What light trails can guide the direction of the Churches in the Mediterranean? Thinking about the sea, which unites many different believing communities, I believe we can reflect on more synergistic paths, perhaps also evaluating the opportunity of a Mediterranean ecclesial conference, as Cardinal [Aveline] said. which allows further possibilities for exchange and gives greater ecclesial representativeness to the region. Even thinking about the port and the migration issue, it could be profitable to work for an even more connected specific pastoral care, so that the most exposed Dioceses can ensure better spiritual and human assistance to the sisters and brothers who arrive in need.
Finally, the lighthouse, in this prestigious building that bears its name, makes me think above all of young people: they are the light that indicates the future route. Marseille is a large university city, home to four campuses; of the approximately 35,000 students who attend them, 5,000 are foreign. Where to start weaving relationships between cultures, if not from the university? There young people are not enchanted by the seductions of power, but by the dream of building the future. Mediterranean universities are laboratories of dreams and construction sites of the future, where young people mature by meeting, getting to know each other and discovering cultures and contexts that are close and different at the same time. In this way, prejudices are broken down, wounds are healed and fundamentalist rhetoric is avoided. Be careful of the preaching of many fundamentalisms that are fashionable today! Well-trained young people oriented towards fraternization will be able to open unexpected doors of dialogue. If we want them to dedicate themselves to the Gospel and to the high service of politics, we must first of all be credible: forgetful of ourselves, free from self-referentiality, dedicated to spending ourselves tirelessly for others. But the primary challenge of education concerns every educational age: already as children, "mixing" with others, one can overcome many barriers and preconceptions, developing one's identity in the context of mutual enrichment. The Church can well contribute to this by putting its training networks at the service and animating a "creativity of fraternity".
Brothers and sisters, the challenge is also that of a Mediterranean theology – theology must be rooted in life; a laboratory theology does not work -, which develops a thought adhering to reality, the "home" of the human and not just the technical data, capable of uniting generations by linking memory and future, and of promoting with originality the ecumenical path among the Christians and dialogue between believers of different religions. It is beautiful to venture into a philosophical and theological research which, drawing on Mediterranean cultural sources, restores hope to man, a mystery of freedom in need of God and others to give meaning to his existence. And it is also necessary to reflect on the mystery of God, which no one can claim to possess or master, and which indeed must be removed from any violent and instrumental use, aware that the confession of his greatness presupposes the humility of seekers in us.
Mr President of the Republic,
dear brother Bishops,
illustrious Mayors and Authorities representing cities and territories bordered by the Mediterranean Sea,
friends and all friends!
I greet you cordially, grateful to each of you for having accepted Cardinal Aveline's invitation to participate in these meetings. Thank you for your work and for the valuable reflections you have shared. After Bari and Florence, the path to the service of the Mediterranean peoples progresses: here too, ecclesiastical and civil leaders are together not to negotiate mutual interests, but animated by the desire to take care of man; thank you for doing it with young people, the present and future of the Church and society.
The city of Marseille is very old. Founded by Greek navigators who came from Asia Minor, the myth traces it back to the love story between an emigrant sailor and a native princess. Since its origins it has had a composite and cosmopolitan character: it welcomes the riches of the sea and gives a homeland to those who no longer have one. Marseille tells us that, despite the difficulties, conviviality is possible and is a source of joy. On the map, between Nice and Montpellier, it almost seems to draw a smile; and I like to think of it like this: Marseille is "the smile of the Mediterranean". I would therefore like to offer you some thoughts around three realities that characterize Marseille: the sea, the port and the lighthouse. There are three symbols.
1. The sea. A sea of peoples has made this city a mosaic of hope, with its great multi-ethnic and multicultural tradition, represented by the more than 60 Consulates present on its territory. Marseille is a city that is both plural and singular, as it is its plurality, the result of an encounter with the world, that makes its history singular. Today we often hear it repeated that Mediterranean history is a mixture of conflicts between different civilisations, religions and visions. Let's not ignore the problems – there are them! –, but let's not be fooled: the exchanges between peoples have made the Mediterranean a cradle of civilisation, a sea overflowing with treasures, to the point that, as a great French historian wrote, it is not «a landscape, but countless landscapes. Not a sea, but a succession of seas"; «for millennia everything has flowed into it, complicating and enriching its history» (F. Braudel, La Méditerranée, Paris 1985, 16). The mare nostrum is a meeting space: between the Abrahamic religions; between Greek, Latin and Arabic thought; between science, philosophy and law, and between many other realities. He conveyed to the world the high value of the human being, endowed with freedom, open to the truth and in need of salvation, who sees the world as a wonder to be discovered and a garden to be inhabited, in the sign of a God who makes alliances with others men.
A great mayor saw in the Mediterranean not a conflictual issue, but a response of peace, indeed "the beginning and foundation of peace between all the nations of the world" (G. La Pira, Words at the conclusion of the first Mediterranean Colloquium, 6 October 1958). In fact, he said: «The answer […] is possible if we consider the common historical and so to speak permanent vocation that Providence has assigned in the past, assigns in the present and, in a certain sense, will assign in the future to peoples and nations who live on the shores of this mysterious enlarged Lake Tiberias which is the Mediterranean" (Opening speech of the First Mediterranean Colloquium, 3 October 1958). Lake Tiberias, or Sea of Galilee, a place in which, at the time of Christ, a great variety of populations, cults and traditions were concentrated. Precisely there, in the "Galilee of the Gentiles" (see Mt 4:15) crossed by the Sea Road, most of Jesus' public life took place. A multifaceted and in many ways unstable context was the site of the universal announcement of the Beatitudes , in the name of a God Father of all, who "makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust" (Mt 5:45). It was also the invitation to broaden the frontiers of the heart, overcoming ethnic and cultural barriers. Here then is the answer that comes from the Mediterranean: this perennial Sea of Galilee invites us to oppose the divisiveness of conflicts with the "conviviality of differences" (T. Bello, Benedette inquietudini, Milan 2001, 73). The mare nostrum, at the crossroads between North and South, between East and West, concentrates the challenges of the entire world, as evidenced by its "five shores", on which you have reflected: North Africa, the Near East, the Black-Aegean Sea, the Balkans and Latin Europe. It is an outpost of challenges that affect everyone: let's think of the climate one, with the Mediterranean representing a hotspot where changes are felt more rapidly; how important it is to safeguard the Mediterranean scrub, a treasure chest of biodiversity! In short, this sea, an environment that offers a unique approach to complexity, is a "mirror of the world" and carries within itself a global vocation to brotherhood, a unique vocation and the only way to prevent and overcome conflicts.
Brothers and sisters, in today's sea of conflicts, we are here to enhance the contribution of the Mediterranean, so that it becomes a laboratory of peace again. Because this is the vocation, to be a place where different countries and realities meet on the basis of the humanity that we all share, not of the ideologies that oppose each other. Yes, the Mediterranean expresses a thought that is not uniform and ideological, but multifaceted and adherent to reality; a vital, open and conciliatory thought: a community thought, that's the word. How much we need it in the current situation, where antiquated and belligerent nationalisms want to destroy the dream of the community of nations! But - let's remember - war is waged with weapons, not peace, and with the greed for power we always return to the past, we do not build the future.
So where should we start to establish peace? On the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus began by giving hope to the poor, proclaiming them blessed: he listened to their needs, healed their wounds, and first of all proclaimed to them the good news of the Kingdom. We need to start again from there, from the often silent cry of the last, not from the first in the class who, despite being well, raise their voices. Let us start again, Church and civil community, from listening to the poor, who "embrace each other, not count each other" (P. Mazzolari, The word to the poor, Bologna 2016, 39), because they are faces, not numbers. The change of pace of our communities lies in treating them as brothers whose stories we know, not as annoying problems, chasing them away, sending them home; it lies in welcoming them, not in hiding them; in integrating them, not in evicting them; in giving them dignity. And Marseille, I want to repeat, is the capital of the integration of peoples. This is your pride! Today the sea of human coexistence is polluted by precariousness, which also hurts the splendid Marseille. And where there is precariousness there is crime: where there is material, educational, working, cultural and religious poverty, the terrain of mafias and illicit trafficking is leveled. The commitment of the institutions alone is not enough, we need a leap of conscience to say "no" to illegality and "yes" to solidarity, which is not a drop in the ocean, but the indispensable element to purify its waters.
In fact, the real social evil is not so much the growth of problems, but the decrease in care. Who today acts as a neighbor to young people left to their own devices, easy prey to crime and prostitution? Who takes care of it? Who is close to the people enslaved by a job that should make them freer? Who takes care of scared families, fearful of the future and of bringing new creatures into the world? Who listens to the groan of lonely elderly people who, instead of being valued, are parked, with the falsely dignified prospect of a sweet death, in reality saltier than the waters of the sea? Who thinks of unborn children, rejected in the name of a false right to progress, which is instead a regression in the needs of the individual? Today we have the tragedy of confusing children with dogs. My secretary told me that, passing through St. Peter's Square, he had seen some women carrying children in prams... but they weren't children, they were dogs! This confusion tells us something bad. Who looks with compassion beyond their own shore to hear the cries of pain rising from North Africa and the Middle East? How many people live immersed in violence and suffer situations of injustice and persecution! And I think of many Christians, often forced to leave their lands or to live there without having their rights recognized, without enjoying full citizenship. Please, let us commit ourselves so that those who are part of society can become full citizens. And then there is a cry of pain that resonates most of all, and which is transforming the mare nostrum into mare mortuum, the Mediterranean from the cradle of civilization to the tomb of dignity. It is the suffocated cry of migrant brothers and sisters, to which I would like to pay attention by reflecting on the second image that Marseille offers us, that of its port.
2. The port of Marseille has been a door open to the sea, France and Europe for centuries. From here many have left to find work and a future abroad, and from here many have crossed the door of the continent with baggage full of hope. Marseille has a large port and is a large door, which cannot be closed. Various Mediterranean ports, however, have closed. And two words resonated, fueling people's fears: "invasion" and "emergency". And the ports close. But those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they seek hospitality, they seek life. As for the emergency, the migratory phenomenon is not so much a temporary emergency, always good for spreading alarmist propaganda, but a fact of our times, a process that involves three continents around the Mediterranean and which must be governed with wise foresight: with a European responsibility capable of facing objective difficulties. I am looking, here, on this map, at the privileged ports for migrants: Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Italy and Spain... They overlook the Mediterranean and receive migrants. The mare nostrum cries out for justice, with its shores which on one side exude opulence, consumerism and waste, while on the other there is poverty and precariousness. Here too the Mediterranean reflects the world, with the South turning towards the North, with many developing countries, afflicted by instability, regimes, wars and desertification, which look to the wealthy ones, in a globalized world in which we are all connected but the gaps have never been so deep. Yet, this situation is not new in recent years, and this Pope from the other side of the world is not the first to feel it with urgency and concern. The Church has spoken about it in heartfelt tones for more than fifty years.
The Second Vatican Council had recently ended and Saint Paul VI, in the Encyclical Populorum Progressio, wrote: «The people of hunger today are calling dramatically upon the people of opulence. The church is startled by this cry of anguish and calls everyone to respond with love to their brother" (n. 3). Pope Montini listed "three duties" of the most developed nations, "rooted in human and supernatural brotherhood": "duty of solidarity, that is, the help that rich nations must give to developing countries; duty of social justice, i.e. the reconciliation in more correct terms of the defective commercial relations between strong and weak peoples; universal duty of charity, that is, the promotion of a more human world for all, a world in which everyone has something to give and receive, without the progress of some constituting an obstacle to the development of others" (n. 44). In the light of the Gospel and these considerations, Paul VI, in 1967, underlined the "duty of welcome", on which, he wrote, "we will never insist enough" (n. 67). To this, fifteen years earlier, Pius XII had encouraged, writing that «the Family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus, Mary and Joseph emigrants in Egypt […] are the model, the example and the support of all the emigrants and pilgrims of of every age and of every country, of all refugees of any condition who, pressed by persecution or need, find themselves forced to abandon their homeland, their dear relatives, [...] and to go to a foreign land" (Apostolic Constitution Exsul Familia de spiritual emigrantium cura, 1 August 1952).
Of course, the difficulties in welcoming people are clear for all to see. Migrants must be welcomed, protected or accompanied, promoted and integrated. If we don't get to the end, the migrant ends up in the orbit of society. Welcomed, accompanied, promoted and integrated: this is the style. It is true that it is not easy to have this style or to integrate unexpected people, but the main criterion cannot be the maintenance of one's own well-being, but rather the safeguarding of human dignity. Those who take refuge with us should not be seen as a burden to bear: if we consider them brothers, they will appear to us above all as gifts. Tomorrow we will celebrate World Migrant and Refugee Day. Let us allow ourselves to be touched by the story of many of our brothers and sisters in difficulty, who have the right both to emigrate and not to emigrate, and let us not withdraw into indifference. History calls us to take a leap of conscience to prevent the collapse of civilization. The future, in fact, will not be in closure, which is a return to the past, a U-turn in the path of history. Against the terrible scourge of the exploitation of human beings, the solution is not to reject, but to ensure, according to each individual's possibilities, a large number of legal and regular entries, sustainable thanks to fair reception on the part of the European continent, in the context of a collaboration with the countries of origin. Saying "enough", however, is closing your eyes; attempting to "save oneself" now will turn into a tragedy tomorrow, when future generations will thank us if we have been able to create the conditions for essential integration, while they will blame us if we have only favored sterile assimilations. Integration, even of migrants, is tiring, but far-sighted: it prepares the future which, like it or not, will be together or not; assimilation, which does not take differences into account and remains rigid in its own paradigms, instead makes the idea prevail over reality and compromises the future, increasing distances and causing ghettoisation, which causes hostility and intolerance to flare up. We need brotherhood like bread. The same word "brother", in its Indo-European derivation, reveals a root linked to nutrition and sustenance. We will only support ourselves by nourishing the weakest with hope, welcoming them as brothers. “Do not forget hospitality” (Heb 13:2), Scripture tells us. And in the Old Testament it is repeated: the widow, the orphan and the stranger. The three duties of charity: assisting the widow, assisting the orphan and assisting the foreigner, the migrant.
In this regard, the port of Marseille is also a “gate of faith”. According to tradition, Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus landed here and spread the Gospel in these lands. Faith comes from the sea, as recalled by the evocative Marseille tradition of Candlemas with the maritime procession. Lazarus, in the Gospel, is the friend of Jesus, but it is also the name of the protagonist of one of his very current parables, which opens our eyes to the inequality that corrodes brotherhood and speaks to us of the Lord's predilection for the poor. Well, we Christians, who believe in God made man, in the one and inimitable Man who on the shores of the Mediterranean called himself way, truth and life (see John 14:6), cannot accept that the paths of encounter are closed . Let's not close the ways of meeting, please! We cannot accept that the truth of the god of money prevails over the dignity of man, that life turns into death! The Church, confessing that God in Jesus Christ "has united himself in a certain way with every man" (Gaudium et spes, 22), believes, with Saint John Paul II, that his way is man (see Encyclical Letter. Redemptor hominis, 14). She adores God and serves the most fragile, who are her treasures. Worshiping God and serving others, this is what counts: not social relevance or numerical consistency, but fidelity to the Lord and to man!
This is Christian testimony, and many times it is even heroic; I think for example of Saint Charles de Foucauld, "universal brother", of the martyrs of Algeria, but also of many charity workers today. In this scandalously evangelical lifestyle, the Church finds the safe harbor to dock at and from which to set off again to weave bonds with the people of every people, seeking everywhere for traces of the Spirit and offering what it has received by grace. Here is the purest reality of the Church, here - Bernanos wrote - "the Church of the saints", adding that "all this great apparatus of wisdom, of strength, of elastic discipline, of magnificence and majesty, is nothing in itself, if charity does not animate him" (Jeanne relapse et sainte, Paris 1994, 74). I like to exalt this French perspicacity, believing and creative genius, who affirmed these truths through a multitude of gestures and writings. Saint Caesareus of Arles said: «If you have charity, you have God; and if you have God, what do you lack?” (Sermo 22,2). Pascal recognized that "the only object of Scripture is charity" (Thoughts, n. 301) and that "the truth outside of charity is not God, but is his image and an idol that must not be loved or adored" ( Thoughts, n. 767). And Saint John Cassian, who died here, wrote that "everything, even what is considered useful and necessary, is worth less than that good which is peace and charity" (Spiritual Conferences XVI,6).
It is beautiful therefore that Christians are second to none in charity; and that the Gospel of charity is the magna carta of pastoral care. We are not called to regret past times or to redefine an ecclesial relevance, we are called to bear witness: not to embroider the Gospel with words, but to give it flesh; not to measure visibility, but to spend ourselves in gratuitousness, believing that "the measure of Jesus is love without measure" (Homily, 23 February 2020). Saint Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles who spent a good part of his life on the Mediterranean routes, from one port to another, taught that to fulfill the law of Christ it is necessary to bear one another's burdens (see Gal 6:2). Dear brother Bishops, let us not burden people, but let us ease their efforts in the name of the Gospel of mercy, to joyfully distribute the relief of Jesus to a tired and wounded humanity. The Church is not a set of prescriptions, the Church is a port of hope for the disheartened. Broaden your heart, please! May the Church be a port of refreshment, where people feel encouraged to set out into life with the incomparable strength of the joy of Christ. The Church is not a customs house. Let us remember the Lord: everyone, everyone, everyone is invited.
3. And so I come briefly to the last image, that of the lighthouse. It illuminates the sea and shows the port. What light trails can guide the direction of the Churches in the Mediterranean? Thinking about the sea, which unites many different believing communities, I believe we can reflect on more synergistic paths, perhaps also evaluating the opportunity of a Mediterranean ecclesial conference, as Cardinal [Aveline] said. which allows further possibilities for exchange and gives greater ecclesial representativeness to the region. Even thinking about the port and the migration issue, it could be profitable to work for an even more connected specific pastoral care, so that the most exposed Dioceses can ensure better spiritual and human assistance to the sisters and brothers who arrive in need.
Finally, the lighthouse, in this prestigious building that bears its name, makes me think above all of young people: they are the light that indicates the future route. Marseille is a large university city, home to four campuses; of the approximately 35,000 students who attend them, 5,000 are foreign. Where to start weaving relationships between cultures, if not from the university? There young people are not enchanted by the seductions of power, but by the dream of building the future. Mediterranean universities are laboratories of dreams and construction sites of the future, where young people mature by meeting, getting to know each other and discovering cultures and contexts that are close and different at the same time. In this way, prejudices are broken down, wounds are healed and fundamentalist rhetoric is avoided. Be careful of the preaching of many fundamentalisms that are fashionable today! Well-trained young people oriented towards fraternization will be able to open unexpected doors of dialogue. If we want them to dedicate themselves to the Gospel and to the high service of politics, we must first of all be credible: forgetful of ourselves, free from self-referentiality, dedicated to spending ourselves tirelessly for others. But the primary challenge of education concerns every educational age: already as children, "mixing" with others, one can overcome many barriers and preconceptions, developing one's identity in the context of mutual enrichment. The Church can well contribute to this by putting its training networks at the service and animating a "creativity of fraternity".
Brothers and sisters, the challenge is also that of a Mediterranean theology – theology must be rooted in life; a laboratory theology does not work -, which develops a thought adhering to reality, the "home" of the human and not just the technical data, capable of uniting generations by linking memory and future, and of promoting with originality the ecumenical path among the Christians and dialogue between believers of different religions. It is beautiful to venture into a philosophical and theological research which, drawing on Mediterranean cultural sources, restores hope to man, a mystery of freedom in need of God and others to give meaning to his existence. And it is also necessary to reflect on the mystery of God, which no one can claim to possess or master, and which indeed must be removed from any violent and instrumental use, aware that the confession of his greatness presupposes the humility of seekers in us.
Dear brothers and sisters, I am happy to be here in Marseille! Once Mr President invited me to visit France and said to me like this: "But it is important that you come to Marseille!". And I did it. Thank you for your patient listening and your commitment. Go ahead, brave ones! Be a sea of good, to face today's poverty with a synergy of solidarity; be a welcoming port, to embrace those seeking a better future; be a lighthouse of peace, in order to pierce, through the culture of encounter, the dark abysses of violence and war.” Thank you very much!
Translation from Vatican.va
Translation from Vatican.va
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