Reflecting on his weeklong trip to Spain, Pope Leo XIV said one of his clearest impressions came from the Canary Islands, where migration revealed both the challenges facing Europe and what he described as a Christian path toward a “civilisation of love”. Source: CNS.
Speaking at his weekly general audience yesterday, the Pope said the archipelago’s role as a gateway for thousands of migrants from Africa offered a “comprehensive insight” into a complex issue that also challenges Christians to reread the Gospel in today’s world.
He said migration is “complex and requires organic and coordinated action plans,” but it also challenges Christians to “reread the Gospel in today’s world, exchanging with each other the gifts of our respective cultures, and in particular the results produced in them by the fruitfulness of Christ’s message”.
“This path is not easy; it requires goodwill and God’s help, but it is the path that leads to the civilisation of love,” he said in St Peter’s Square.
The Pope repeatedly returned to migration during the final days of his trip, delivering some of the strongest language of his pontificate on the issue.
“A human conscience, and even more so a Christian conscience, cannot remain indifferent in the face of these graveyards of the sea, to the victims of shipwrecks and the lack of aid,” he said while meeting organisations helping integrate migrants in Tenerife on June 12.
Standing at the port of Arguineguín on Gran Canaria the previous day, he warned against indifference to migrant deaths.
“We cannot grow accustomed to counting the dead,” he said. “Human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border.”
The Pope encountered massive crowds throughout his visit to Spain. More than 1.2 million people attended a Mass at Madrid’s Plaza de Cibeles, and another 500,000 gathered for a youth prayer vigil at Plaza de Lima.
“I was able to observe with joy how much people of every age and situation were looking forward to the Pope’s visit: everywhere I found multitudes who welcomed me with great warmth. This fact was not to be taken for granted, and is worthy of reflection,” he said.
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Pope reflects on Spain trip, says migration concerns call for Christians to reread the Gospel (By Josephine Peterson, CNS)
