"I bow to your dignity. Human dignity has no passport, nor does it lose value when it crosses a border." Pope Leo XIV said this, addressing some refugees during a meeting in the port of Arguineguin , on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, a landing place for migrants on the Atlantic route.
"Human dignity requires legal and safe avenues, aid and assistance, genuine cooperation against traffickers, effective protection of victims, and serious processes of acceptance and integration," the Pope added, stating: "If there is the right to seek refuge, there is also the right not to have to migrate: to remain in one's own home without hunger, without war, without persecution, without corruption stealing bread from the poor and without weapons destroying the future of children."
After hearing the testimonies of some surviving migrants, Pope Leo approached the edge of the Arguineguin pier and, after a brief pause in prayer, threw a wreath into the sea to commemorate the victims of shipwrecks who died on the Atlantic route from Africa to Europe, in a gesture reminiscent of Pope Francis's gesture in Lampedusa on July 8, 2013.
(Unioneonline)
