They are perhaps two hundred to three hundred to hurry, the afternoon of Friday, December 3, in front of the neo-Romanesque parish church of the Holy Cross, meeting point of the Catholic community of Nicosia. These refugees, who have often come with their families, await Pope Francis on the second day of his visit to Cyprus. A dozen of them will be transferred to Rome, by Christmas, at the initiative of the Vatican and with the logistical support of the Community of Sant’Egidio. The day before, the Cypriot president, Nicos Anastasiades, even mentioned the number of fifty.
Among them, Syrians, Congolese, Cameroonians… Not all will benefit from this possibility, even if many dream of it. Iman, a mother of four who came from Iraq in 2018, hopes so for her and her family. “My situation is very bad, she says. I have neither money nor work. I am a Muslim, but for me Muslims and Christians are brothers. I want to go to Rome with my family. I hope I can do it. “
A wide range of nationalities and religions awaits in the small church. The Pope has planned to preside over a “Ecumenical prayer with migrants”. But before arriving at prayer, the head of the Catholic Church chooses to leave his written speech to launch a heavy charge against those who make the migrant route a sometimes fatal journey.
It is addressed to the four refugees from Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo who have just read a brief testimony describing the concealment of their person, their projects, their dreams behind their status as applicant. asylum, undocumented, refugee. He asks Christians, as his text foresees, to “Not to resign yourself to a divided world” but to move towards “A humanity without walls of separation, (…) no longer with foreigners but only with fellow citizens. Different, of course, and proud of our particularities, which are a gift from God, but reconciled fellow citizens ”.
“The culture of indifference”
Then, improvising, Pope Francis is more and more indignant at the fate of migrants who try to reach Europe. He denounces “The culture of indifference” from “People who have everything” : “It’s so easy to look away! “
“You got here, but how many stayed on the way? “
Then he adds a long codicil to his speech. “You got here, but how many stayed on the way? Seeing you, I see the suffering of the way. It is the story of universal slavery. The worst part is that you get used to it. It is a very serious illness. I also see those who had to go back, sometimes because they were pushed back, and who end up in a lager. “ The Argentine Pope has already used this German term, which referred to Nazi concentration and extermination camps, on several occasions to describe the places where smugglers and traffickers detain and exploit migrants, especially in Libya.
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