VALLETTA —
Pope Francis reminded Malta of its roots as a "safe harbor" in his first
visit to the Mediterranean island nation Saturday, warning it not to succumb to
isolation and fear amid migrant crises on multiple fronts.
اضافة اعلان
The 85-year-old pontiff's visit to the
archipelago, delayed two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, comes as war in
Ukraine has unleashed Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II, with
more than four million fleeing the country.
Invoking "the dark shadows of war"
spreading across
Eastern Europe and castigating those "provoking and
fomenting conflicts", Francis similarly recalled the ongoing influx of
migrants from the south who try to cross the Mediterranean to reach the island
shores of Malta, given its strategic position south of Sicily and to Africa's
north.
"According to its Phoenician etymology,
Malta means 'safe harbor'," the pope said in his opening address to
Maltese dignitaries, including Prime Minister Robert Abela, at the
Grandmaster's Palace, the former seat of the Knights Hospitaller who ruled
Malta for centuries.
"Nonetheless, given the growing influx
of recent years, fear and insecurity have nurtured a certain discouragement and
frustration," Francis said, warning against "adopting an
anachronistic isolationism".
Don't look away
Malta, with a population of just over a half
a million inhabitants, has argued it is unfairly penalized for its geographic
position and takes a disproportionate share of migrants arriving by sea from
North Africa, given its small size.
The heavily Catholic country has c ome under
fire by charity rescue groups patrolling the
Mediterranean, charging that
Maltese authorities turn a blind eye to migrants in peril in its waters.
"The growing migration emergency — here
we can think of the refugees from war-torn Ukraine — calls for a broad-based
and shared response. Some countries cannot respond to the entire problem, while
others remain indifferent onlookers," the pope said.
Addressing the conflict in Ukraine, in what
appeared to be a barely veiled reference to Russia's
Vladimir Putin, Francis
said "some potentate, sadly caught up in anachronistic claims of
nationalist interests, is provoking and fomenting conflicts..."
Before departing the Vatican Saturday for
the two-day trip, Francis met Ukrainian refugee families newly arrived in Rome.
Asked by a reporter on the papal plane about
a possible trip to Kyiv, the pope said a visit to Ukraine's capital was
"on the table".
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