Pope Leo in Gran Canaria: ‘Human dignity has no passport’

Standing on the docks of Arguineguín, a port on the southern coast of Gran Canaria that has become one of Europe’s most poignant symbols of migration, Pope Leo XIV on Thursday issued an urgent appeal for compassion, responsibility and solidarity, insisting that “human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border.”

On the sixth day of his Apostolic Journey to Spain, the Pope met with migrants and the organisations that rescue, welcome and accompany them along one of the world’s deadliest migration routes.

The gathering took place at the so-called “Port of Shame,” where in 2020, thousands of migrants arrived within days as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. For many fleeing poverty, conflict and exploitation in West Africa, the Canary Islands represent the nearest gateway to Europe, reached after perilous journeys across the Atlantic in overcrowded wooden boats.

Against the backdrop of the harbour and the Atlantic Ocean, Pope Leo listened to testimonies from a maritime rescuer, a Caritas volunteer, a survivor of human trafficking, and a migrant entrepreneur who rebuilt her life after years of hardship.

“The Gospel becomes concrete”

Reflecting on the Gospel passage of Matthew 25, the Pope said the Word of God takes on flesh in places such as Arguineguín, where people arrive “stripped of almost everything, but never of their dignity.”

“Here the Gospel pulls us out of our comfortable position as spectators and places before us a brother or a sister who has arrived,” he said. “It asks us if we have recognised Christ in those who disembark, marked by fear, hunger and violence, after enduring the desert, the night and the sea.”

Recalling the symbolism of the Fisherman's Ring he wears as Successor of Peter, Pope Leo reflected on Christ’s call to Peter to become a “fisher of people.”

“Here, people are rescued from the sea, and lifeless bodies are recovered from the waters,” he said. “For this reason, the Successor of Peter cannot ignore these docks. The Church cannot ignore these waters.”

The sea and its “monsters”

Drawing on biblical imagery, the Pope described the sea as a place where danger and chaos coexist with hope.

“Even today, monsters lurk in these seas,” he warned, referring to “mafias that profit from despair, traffickers who enslave women and children, and those whose indifference allows the poor to be swallowed up by exploitation or forgetfulness.”

Yet he insisted that faith cannot be paralysed by fear.

“If Christ commands the sea to be still, the Church cannot remain silent about those who are abandoned to its waters,” he said.

Faces, not statistics

One salient moment of the meeting was the testimony of Tito Villarmea, a Maritime Rescue captain who has helped save more than 20,000 people at sea.

He recalled a rescue operation involving a woman travelling with what appeared to be her teenage son. Once safely aboard the rescue vessel, she removed the child’s cap and jacket and placed gold earrings in the youngster’s ears. “It was a girl,” he said, remembering how both of them burst into tears.

The Pope thanked those who shared their stories and praised the work of rescuers, Caritas volunteers and parish communities, saying their witness reveals how “the migrant ceases to be ‘just one more’, a mere category or a statistic.”

“Only then can we understand that that little girl could be our daughter, and that those faces could be part of our family,” he said.

He also highlighted the testimony of María Reyes Alemán Cruz, who coordinated parish efforts during the migration emergency and spoke of discovering that accompanying others often begins with simple gestures: a pair of shoes, a coat, a cup of coffee, or simply being present.

“Mercy begins with small gestures,” the Pope said,  “The goal is not to solve everything, but to place everything in God’s hands and to be present where people suffer.”

“What remains of our humanity?”

The meeting concluded with a floral tribute and a minute of silence in memory of those who have died attempting sea crossings. The Pope then blessed a cross fashioned from the wood of a migrant boat at the nearby shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of seafarers.

Before departing, he greeted volunteers and migrants gathered along the waterfront as his warning echoed across the harbour and beyond: 

“Today, here by the sea, every individual that arrives asks us what remains of our humanity, (...)  Sooner or later, it will be known whether we protected life or whether we yielded to indifference.”

ENDS

Source: www.vaticannews.va

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