Pope Francis reminds migrants in Malta of his ‘closeness’ on last day of visit

Addressing a crowd on Sunday at the John XIII Peace Lab, an immigration reception center in Hal Far, Malta, Pope Francis called for strengthening “the fabric of social friendship and the culture of encounter, starting from places such as this.”

The Holy Father made his comments during an outdoor ceremony on the second and final day of his trip to the Mediterranean island nation. Seated in front of a display of crushed water bottles and life jackets, Pope Francis began his address by recalling a message he gave from a refugee center on the Greek island of Lesbos in December 2021.

“Let me repeat what I said some months ago in Lesbos: ‘I am here ... to assure you of my closeness. ... I am here to see your faces and look into your eyes,’” he said to the crowd, which included approximately 200 migrant men, women, and children. “Since the day I visited Lampedusa, I have not forgotten you. You are always in my heart and in my prayers.”

After his arrival at 4:45 p.m. local time, Pope Francis was welcomed by Father Dionisio Mintoff, the founder of the peace lab, and then listened to two testimonies given by migrants at the center.

“None of us leave our homelands because of lack of love for our countries,” Siriman Coulibaly, a migrant who has been living at the center in Malta for four years and now has a pregnant wife, told the pope. “On the contrary, our journeys are journeys that start in hope of finding a safe space. We flee war, violent conflict, violations of human rights.”

In response to the man, the pope later said that those who are forced to leave their countries with dreams of freedom and democracy often experience a collision of their dreams with “a harsh reality, often dangerous, sometimes terrible and inhuman.”

Speaking directly to Coulibaly, he said, “You gave voice to the stifled plea of those millions of migrants whose fundamental rights are violated, sadly at times with the complicity of the competent authorities. That is the way it is, and I want to say it the way it is: Sadly, at times with the complicity of the competent authorities. And you drew our attention to the most important thing: the dignity of the person.”

The Holy Father went on: “I would reaffirm this in your own words: you are not statistics but flesh and blood people with faces and dreams, dreams that are sometimes dashed,” he said.