Pope empties Russia’s ‘infantile’ war, EU-Libya agreement in Malta
VALLETTA, Malta – Pope Francis said on Saturday that he was considering a possible visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and blasted the leader who launched a “savage” war, leading to his strongest denunciation to date. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In his remarks in Malta, Francis did not mention President Vladimir Putin by name, but the reference was clear when he said that “some power” left the threat of a nuclear war on the world in “child aggression”. and destructive ”.
“We thought that invasions of other countries, savage street fighting and atomic threats were painful memories of the distant past,” Francis told Maltese officials in the Mediterranean island nation at the beginning of an end-of-visit. -week.
Francis has so far avoided referring to Russia or Putin by name, in line with the Vatican’s tradition of not calling on aggressors to keep options open for dialogue. But Saturday’s criticism of the strong figure responsible for the war marked a new level of anger for the Pope.
“Once again, some powerful people, unfortunately caught up in anachronistic claims of nationalist interest, are provoking and escalating conflicts, while ordinary people feel the need to build a future that will either be shared or nothing. , “he said.
Francis told reporters on their way to Malta that a possible visit to Kiev was “on the table,” but no confirmed dates or trips have been set. The mayor of the Ukrainian capital had invited Francis on March 8 to come as a messenger of peace along with other religious figures, but recently warned even the strongest city residents to fled that the city is still in danger from Russian hostilities.
Francis also said that the war had hurt his heart so much that he sometimes forgot the pain in his knees. Francis has been suffering from a ligament strain in his right knee for months. The inflammation got so bad that the Vatican arranged for a tarmac lift to get on and off the plane for Saturday’s flight to Malta, and a limp was more evident on Saturday.
Malta’s visit, originally scheduled for May 2020, has always had to focus on migration, given Malta’s role at the heart of the European debate on migration. The issue has grown even more so with the forced exodus of more than 4 million Ukrainian refugees. Francis focused his remarks on the dangerous migration route of the Mediterranean and Europe’s faulty migration policies to welcome people fleeing war, poverty and conflict.
Speaking to the President of Malta next to him, Francis denounced the “sordid agreement” that the European Union has made with Libya to turn back migrants and said that Europe must show humanity to welcome them. He called for the Mediterranean to be “a theater of solidarity, not the forerunner of a tragic shipwreck of civilization.”
Francis was referring to the EU’s program to train Libyan coastguards, who guard the North African coast for the smuggling of migrants and bring the shore back to the coast. refugees who want to be. The program was strongly supported by Italy and other Mediterranean countries to try to stop the flow of hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants each year.
But human rights groups have condemned the EU-funded program as a violation of migrants’ rights and documented major abuses in Libyan detention camps. Earlier this week, the German said that his military would no longer provide training to the Libyan coastguard due to the “unacceptable” and in some cases illegal, treatment of migrants.
Francis condemned the Libyan detention facilities as concentration camps, but went further on Saturday to mislead the EU into its complicity in the abuses there.
“Civilized countries cannot approve in their own interest sordid agreements with criminals who make slaves of other human beings,” he said.
Malta, the smallest country in the European Union with half a million people, has been at the forefront of the flow of migrants and refugees across the Mediterranean and has often come under attack for refusing to allow lifeboats to dock. Just this week, a German aid group searched for a port for 106 migrants rescued at sea and, by Saturday, the ship was going to Sicily instead.
Malta has often called on its larger European neighbors to bear the brunt of the burden on refugees.
Francis often repeated that call, and linked it on Saturday with the welcome that the Maltese once gave to the Apostle Paul, who according to the biblical account was shipwrecked outside Malta around the year 60 AD while he was on his way to Rome and showed an unusually good heart from the islands.
Later on Saturday, Francis traveled by catamaran ferry to the island of Gozo, embracing the tradition of the Mediterranean Sea to celebrate a prayer meeting at Malta’s national sanctuary. Surrounded by two Maltese saints who are key assistants in the Vatican, Francis sat on a white chair on the deck for an hour’s journey and was greeted by thunder cannons as the ship entered the port of Gozo.
———
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.