Cyprus, the Pope to migrants: barbed wire, poison of a hatred from which to detoxify

Mariamie, Thamara, Maccolins, Rozh ... The eyes and faces of migrants, their stories of marginalization, rejection and fear, the wounds caused by the hatred that sows poison from Sri Lanka to Cameroon to Iraq, mark the final act of the Pope in Cyprus. In fact, as usual, Francis does not take leave of the Mediterranean island with a Mass (he celebrated it this morning in the GPS Stadium) but with the ecumenical prayer in the parish church of Santa Croce, a sacred building built in 1900 with the help of of the Spanish royal family, located on the edge of the "blue line" that traces the border between the "two" Nicosia. Inside the church there has been, for hours, with masks and after showing the green pass, a large representation of those hundreds of thousands of refugees, who have tripled on the island in recent years, waiting to reach Europe. Ideally, all those refugees kidnapped, sold, exploited, tortured, rejected and sent back to those "concentration camps" that - he says Francis in a passionate off-the-cuff digression of his speech - they recall the extermination camps of the Nazis or Stalin's gulags. get used to it.

Wounded meat

The one in the Church of the Holy Cross is the last meeting of the Pope in Cyprus but the first with the "wounded flesh" that in recent days Francis had said he wanted to touch by going to these places of history and civilization, a crossroads of encounters and cultures, but also of fragmentation and desperation of hundreds of people fleeing Africa and the Middle East, who landed on the Cypriot coast through Turkey. Always if he is lucky enough to do so and is not faced with a "barbed wire", a symbol of "hatred". In fact, the wish that the Pope expresses for the country is significant: "May this island, marked by a painful division, become with the grace of God a laboratory of fraternity". And fraternity is realized and matures along two paths:

The first is the effective recognition of the dignity of every human person: this is the ethical foundation, a universal foundation that is also at the heart of Christian social doctrine. The second condition is the trusting openness to God the Father of all; and this is the 'leaven' that we are called to bring as believers

Not foreigners but fellow citizens Those proposed by the Pope are not ideals and utopias, but "concrete steps" to pass "from conflict to communion, from hatred to love". The love of which migrants speak in their testimonies, pronounced with a faint voice and a few tears in the cathedral, before the Pope, the patriarchs Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Béchara Raï, and the representatives of the various Christian denominations present in Cyprus.

Francis makes his own the words of these men and women considered, even after years, ξένοι (foreigners): he addresses each of them, calls them by name and draws inspiration from their stories for his speech. “I had received your testimonies in advance about a month ago and they impressed me a lot, and even today they moved me. But it is not just emotion, it is much more: it is the emotion that comes from the beauty of the truth ”, the Pontiff begins. And he recalls the words of St. Paul: "You are no longer strangers or guests, but you are fellow citizens of the saints and family members of God". A God who, Francis emphasizes, "dreams of a world of peace, in which his children live as brothers and sisters". "God wants that, God dreams this. We don't want it."

Interests make us slaves "Your testimonies are like a 'mirror' for us, Christian communities", adds the Pope, quoting Thamara, who came from Sri Lanka, who said shortly before: "I am often asked who I am". We too are sometimes asked this question: "Who are you?", Observes the Pontiff. "The brutality of migration puts one's identity on the line" and "unfortunately we often mean: 'Which side are you on? Which group do you belong to?'. But as you told us, we are not numbers, individuals to be cataloged; we are brothers , friends, believers, neighbors to each other ". But when group interests or political interests, even of nations, push, many of us remain on one side, unwittingly, slaves. Because interest always enslaves, always creates slaves. Love which is broad, which is contrary to hatred, love makes us free.

Hatred pollutes relations between Christians "And when you, Maccolins - continues the Pope addressing a young man from Cameroon - you say that in the course of your life you have been 'wounded by hatred', you are talking about this: the wounds of interests. And remind us that hatred has also polluted our relations between Christians ". This "leaves its mark, a deep mark that lasts a long time". It is a poison that is difficult to detoxify from. Hate is a distorted mentality, which instead of being recognized as brothers, makes us see us as adversaries, as rivals, as an object to be sold and exploited.

Walk together Francis then turns his gaze to Rozh, who came from Iraq: "When you say that you are 'a person on a journey', you remind us that we too are communities on a journey, we are on the way from conflict to communion". "On this road, which is long and is made up of ups and downs, the differences between us must not frighten us, but rather our closures and our prejudices, which prevent us from truly meeting and walking together", says the Pope. "The closures and prejudices rebuild between us that wall of separation that Christ broke down, that is, enmity"

On the way to full unity He, the Lord Jesus, says the Pope, "comes to meet us with the face of his marginalized and rejected brother. With the face of the despised, rejected, caged migrant ... But also of the migrant who is traveling towards something, towards a hope, towards a more human coexistence ". And so God "also calls us not to resign ourselves to a divided world, to divided Christian communities, but to walk through history attracted by the dream of God: a humanity without walls of separation, freed from enmity, without strangers but only fellow citizens ". A generous island Francesco thanks all those who work to make this "dream" come true, but at the same time affirms: "To think that this island is generous but it cannot do everything, right? Because the number of people arriving is greater than their ability to enter, to integrate , to accompany, to promote ... Its geographical proximity facilitates this, but it is not easy. We must understand the limits the rulers of this island are attacked. But there is always in this island, and I have seen it, in the leaders who I visited, to become with the grace of God, a laboratory of fraternity ".

Brothers and sisters left on the street The moment of farewell arrives, but the Pope wants to add a final reflection, completely departing from the written speech. It is the denunciation of the inhuman conditions in which thousands of migrants all over the world live: "I say this because it is my responsibility to help open their eyes", he says. His criticism is against traffickers and tortured people but, at the same time, against a world that has "got used" to these tragedies: it is born by "listening" to the voices of migrants and "looking" at their faces. "You have arrived here, but how many of your brothers and sisters are left on the road? How many desperate people start their journey in very difficult conditions, even precarious, and have not been able to arrive ... We can talk about this sea that has become a cemetery. Looking at you, I look at the sufferings of the journey, so many that have been kidnapped, sold, exploited, are still on the way ... It is the story of a slavery, a universal slavery ".

Real lagers before our eyes "The worst - the Pope accuses - is that we are getting used to this: 'Ah today, yes, a boat has sunk, so many missing.' But look, this getting used to is a serious disease and there is no antibiotic against this disease. We must go against this habit of getting used to these tragedies that we read on the news and other media. Looking at you, I think of many who had to go back, because they were rejected and ended up in concentration camps, real concentration camps, where women are sold, men enslaved. tortured ". Often, Francis observed, interrupted by applause, we wonder how it was possible that the concentration camps of the last century were built, but the same - he says - "happens today on the nearby coasts ...". "I looked at some testimonies of this: places of torture, of people selling, I say this because it is my responsibility to help open our eyes", the Pope continues. “Forced migration is not a quasi-tourist habit, please! The sin we have inside prompts us to think this: 'Poor people, poor people'. With the 'poor people', we erase everything. It is the suffering of brothers and sisters that we cannot keep silent. Those who have given everything they had to get on a boat at night, without knowing if they will arrive. And then many ended up in concentration camps, places of confinement and slavery. This is the story of this developed civilization that we call the West "

The barbed wire, war of hate One last word, the Pope says he cannot keep quiet: "The barbed wire ... Here I see one. This is a war of hatred that a country experiences. The barbed wires in other parts are made to prevent refugees from entering . The one who comes to ask for freedom, bread, help, brotherhood, joy, who is fleeing from hatred, finds in front of a hatred which is called barbed wire. May the Lord awaken the conscience of all of us in front of these things. excuse me - he concludes - if I said things as they are, but we cannot be silent ". In Italy 12 refugees Some of the migrants met by the Pope in Nicosia today will be transferred to Italy in the coming weeks. Twelve in total that will be welcomed, with the support of the Holy See, as a "sign of the Holy Father's concern for families and migrants", comments Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni. "A humanitarian gesture" that will ideally continue the apostolic journey to Cyprus.

TRANSLATED FROM ITALIAN TO ENGLISH: https://www.vaticannews.va/it/papa/news/2021-12/papa-preghiera-ecumenica-migranti-chiesa-santa-croce-nicosia.html