APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS IN CYPRUS AND GREECE (2-6 December 2021) VISIT TO REFUGEES SPEECH OF THE HOLY FATHER

APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
IN CYPRUS AND GREECE
(2-6 December 2021)

VISIT TO REFUGEES

SPEECH OF THE HOLY FATHER

Dear brothers and sisters, thanks for your words. I am grateful to you, Madam President, for your presence and your words. Sisters, brothers, I am here again to meet you. I am here to tell you that I am close to you, and to say it from the heart. I'm here to see your faces, to look you in the eye. Eyes full of fear and expectation, eyes that have seen violence and poverty, eyes furrowed with too many tears. The Ecumenical Patriarch and dear Brother Bartholomew, five years ago on this island, said something that struck me: "Whoever is afraid of you has not looked you in the eye. Those who are afraid of you have not seen your faces. Those who are afraid of you do not see your children. Forget that dignity and freedom transcend fear and division. Forget that migration is not a problem in the Middle East and North Africa, Europe and Greece. It is a problem of the world "(Speech, April 16, 2016).

Yes, it is a world problem, a humanitarian crisis that affects everyone. The pandemic has affected us globally, it has made us all feel in the same boat, it has made us feel what it means to have the same fears. We understood that the big issues must be faced together, because in today's world, fragmented solutions are inadequate. But while vaccinations are being laboriously carried out on a planetary level and something, despite many delays and uncertainties, seems to be moving in the fight against climate change, everything seems to be terribly in hiding with regard to migration. Yet there are people, human lives at stake! Everyone's future is at stake, which will only be peaceful if integrated. Only if reconciled with the weakest will the future be prosperous. Because when the poor are rejected, peace is rejected. Closures and nationalisms - history teaches us - lead to disastrous consequences. Indeed, as the Second Vatican Council recalled, "the firm will to respect other men and other peoples and their dignity, and the assiduous practice of human brotherhood are absolutely necessary for the construction of peace" (Gaudium et spes, 78). It is an illusion to think that it is enough to safeguard yourself, defending yourself from the weakest who knock on the door. The future will put us even more in contact with each other. To turn it to the good we do not need unilateral actions, but far-reaching policies. History, I repeat, teaches it, but we have not yet learned it. Do not turn their backs on reality, stop the continuous rebound of responsibility, do not always delegate the migration issue to others, as if no one cared and it was just a useless burden that someone is forced to shoulder!

Sisters, brothers, your faces, your eyes ask us not to turn away, not to deny the humanity that unites us, to make your stories our own and not to forget your tragedies. Elie Wiesel, witness of the greatest tragedy of the past century, wrote: «It is because I remember our common origin that I draw close to my brothers men. It is because I refuse to forget that their future is as important as mine "(From the Kingdom of Memory, Reminiscences, New York, 1990, 10). On this Sunday, I pray to God to awaken us from forgetfulness for those who suffer, to shake us from the individualism that excludes, to awaken hearts deaf to the needs of others. And I also pray to man, every man: let us overcome the paralysis of fear, the indifference that kills, the cynical disinterest that with velvet gloves condemns those on the margins to death! We oppose at the root the dominant thought, the one that revolves around one's self, one's personal and national egoisms, which become the measure and criterion of everything.

Five years have passed since the visit made here with the dear Brothers Bartolomeo and Ieronymos. After all this time we see that little has changed on the migration issue. Of course, many have committed themselves to welcoming and integrating, and I would like to thank the many volunteers and those at every level - institutional, social, charitable, political - have undertaken great efforts, taking care of people and the migration issue. I recognize the commitment to finance and build worthy reception facilities and I sincerely thank the local population for the great good they have done and the many sacrifices they have tried. And I would also like to thank the local authorities, who are committed to receiving, caring for and bringing forward these people who come to us. Thanks! Thanks for what you do! But we must bitterly admit that this country, like others, is still under pressure and that in Europe there are those who persist in treating the problem as a business that does not concern them. This is tragic. I remember your last words [addressed to the President]: "May Europe do the same". And how many conditions unworthy of man! How many hotspots where migrants and refugees live in conditions that are at the limit, without glimpsing solutions on the horizon! Yet respect for people and human rights, especially in the continent which does not fail to promote them in the world, should always be safeguarded, and the dignity of each one should be given priority over everything! It is sad to hear, as solutions, the use of mutual funds to build walls, to build barbed wire. We are in the age of walls and barbed wire. Of course, we understand fears and insecurities, difficulties and dangers. Fatigue and frustration are felt, exacerbated by the economic and pandemic crises, but it is not by raising barriers that problems are solved and coexistence improved. Instead, it is by joining forces to take care of others according to the real possibilities of each and in compliance with the law, always putting in the first place the irrepressible value of the life of every man, of every woman, of every person. Elie Wiesel further said: "When human lives are in danger, when human dignity is in danger, national borders become irrelevant" (Speech of acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize, 10 December 1986).

In various societies, security and solidarity, local and universal, tradition and openness are ideologically opposed. Rather than siding with ideas, it can be helpful to start from reality: to stop, to broaden our gaze, to immerse it in the problems of the majority of humanity, of many populations victims of humanitarian emergencies that have not created but only immediately, often after long stories of exploitation still in progress. It is easy to drag public opinion by instilling fear of the other; why, on the other hand, with the same attitude, do we not speak of the exploitation of the poor, of the forgotten and often lavishly financed wars, of the economic agreements made on the skin of the people, of the hidden maneuvers to smuggle arms and make their trade proliferate? Why aren't we talking about this? The remote causes must be addressed, not the poor people who pay the consequences, even being used for political propaganda! To remove the root causes, it is not only possible to stop emergencies. Concerted action is needed. Epochal changes must be approached with greatness of vision. Because there are no easy answers to complex problems; Instead, there is a need to accompany the processes from within, to overcome ghettoization and encourage slow and indispensable integration, to welcome the cultures and traditions of others in a fraternal and responsible way.

Above all, if we want to start again, let's look at the faces of the children. We find the courage to be ashamed of them, who are innocent and are the future. They question our consciences and ask us: "What world do you want to give us?" We do not rush away from the crude images of their little bodies lying inert on the beaches. The Mediterranean, which for millennia has united different peoples and distant lands, is becoming a cold cemetery without tombstones. This large basin of water, the cradle of many civilizations, now looks like a mirror of death. Let us not let the mare nostrum turn into a desolating mare mortuum, let this meeting place become the theater of confrontation! Let's not allow this "sea of ​​memories" to turn into the "sea of ​​forgetfulness". Brothers and sisters, please stop this sinking of civilization!

On the shores of this sea God became man. His Word is echoed, bringing the announcement of God, who is "Father and guide of all men" (St. Gregory of Nazianzo, Discourse 7 for his brother Cesario, 24). He loves us as children and wants us as brothers. Instead, God is offended, despising man created in his image, leaving him at the mercy of the waves, in the lapping of indifference, sometimes justified even in the name of alleged Christian values. Faith instead asks for compassion and mercy - let us not forget that this is God's style: closeness, compassion and tenderness -. Faith exhorts hospitality, to that philoxenia that has permeated classical culture, then finding its definitive manifestation in Jesus, especially in the parable of the Good Samaritan (cf.Lk 10: 29-37) and in the words of chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew (cf. vv. 31-46). It is not a religious ideology, they are concrete Christian roots. Jesus solemnly affirms that he is there, in the stranger, in the refugee, in the naked and hungry. And the Christian program is to be where Jesus is. Yes, because the Christian program, wrote Pope Benedict, "is a heart that sees" (Encyclical letter Deus caritas est, 31). And I would not like to finish this message without thanking the Greek people for their welcome. Many times this welcome becomes a problem, because there are no ways out for people to go elsewhere. Thank you, Greek brothers and sisters, for this generosity. Now let us pray to Our Lady to open our eyes to the suffering of the brothers. She quickly set off on her way to her cousin Elizabeth who was pregnant. How many pregnant mothers have found death in a hurry and on a journey while carrying life in their womb! May the Mother of God help us to have a maternal gaze, which sees in men children of God, sisters and brothers to welcome, protect, promote and integrate. And love tenderly. May All Saints teach us to put the reality of mankind before ideas and ideologies, and to take quick steps towards those who suffer. Now let us pray to Our Lady all together. [Angelus]