Pope Francis, 86, arrived this Friday, September 22 in Marseille, in the south-east of France, for a two-day visit devoted in particular to the theme of migration and the Mediterranean.
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The Pope’s plane landed shortly after 4 p.m. local time at Marseille-Provence airport in Marignane. In a wheelchair, François was greeted by French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.
During his flight, which took him from Rome to the Phocaean city, he set the tone, reports our Vatican correspondent, Camille Dalmas. “ I expect a lot from this trip “, he assured.
Answering a few questions from the journalists on board with him, he commented on the massive arrivals of migrants in Lampedusa which have taken place in recent days. A place he visited in 2013.
Francis denounces the “cemetery” that the Mediterranean has become for him. On this issue he spoke of cruelty and lack of humanity.
Visibly moved, he also regretted that after crossing the desert, and confronting traffickers in Libya, the migrants were thrown into the sea. Words that he intends to take to Marseille.
The sovereign pontiff describes the city as a door, a window to the Mediterranean. “ I hope I have the courage to say everything I want to say “, he confided about twenty minutes before his plane landed.
Note that the head of the Catholic Church being sensitive to the environmental cause, Ms. Borne took advantage of her brief tête-à-tête with him to give him the document on her government’s ecological planning.
After his short interview with the head of government at the airport, Pope Francis immediately headed to the Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica, on the heights of the Phocaean city.
Then, after a prayer with the clergy within the “Good Mother”, he was to pray under a radiant sky with representatives of other faiths in front of the memorial dedicated to sailors and migrants lost at sea.
“ We can no longer witness the tragedies of shipwrecks caused by heinous trafficking and the fanaticism of indifference. People who are at risk of drowning when abandoned in the waves must be rescued. It is a duty of humanity, it is a duty of civilization », exhorted the Holy Father.
On Saturday, the Pope will then deliver the closing speech of the third Mediterranean Meetings, after the editions of Bari in 2020 and Florence in 2022.
He must then meet President Macron. Before leaving for Rome, he should finally take a stroll in a popemobile along the Avenue du Prado, and preside over a mass at the Vélodrome stadium.
This visit by the head of the Catholic Church takes place under high protection, around 6,000 members of the police are mobilized as part of a “ unusual device », According to a senior police official.
In France, the visit of the Argentine Jesuit was received differently, analyzes Agence France-Presse. Some on the right criticize his “ interference » policy on the migration issue.
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