Pope Leo XIV, who has sparred with the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, has spent the Fourth of July in the epicentre of Europe’s migration debate to honour the tens of thousands of people who have died trying to reach Europe to find freedom and prosperity.
While the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with rallies, parties and fireworks, the US-born Pope travelled to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to pray at a migrant cemetery and celebrate a solemn Mass for the island’s residents and newest arrivals.
Later on Saturday, he got into the July 4 spirit with a visit to the residence of the US ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch, a rarity for popes who usually don’t call on ambassadors.
The US Embassy said Burch gave Leo a commemorative baseball, an apple pie and a US World Cup jersey.
Leo confirmed he was rooting for the US team, the Embassy wrote on X, adding that the two discussed “American efforts to pursue peace, religious freedom and the need for moral clarity and courage around the world.”
A treeless strip of rock nine kilometres long, Lampedusa is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland and is the main port of entry into Europe for hundreds of thousands of migrants who crossed by boat from Libya or Tunisia, often smuggled by human traffickers.
Leo met with some migrants at the port and then walked alone onto the jagged jetty rocks, the wind whipping his cassock and blowing his zucchetto skullcap off as he looked out to the sea.
He then blessed a plaque dedicating the dock to Pope Francis, who visited in 2013, before celebrating Mass on land.
“This is a place where gestures speak louder than words,” Leo said.
“But for gestures to be human, they need a heart.”
In making the visit on this particular Saturday, Leo was sending a powerfully symbolic message to the United States and Europe of the Christian obligation to uphold the dignity of every human being, migrants and the most vulnerable especially, while reminding the United States that it was founded by immigrants.
In a letter sent to Americans on the July 4 anniversary, Leo insisted that protecting the unborn and all human life also means “welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants, whose hopes, sacrifices and contribution have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning”.
“To receive them with compassion and generosity is not only an act of charity, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human person,” Leo wrote.
In recent years, Lampedusa has become Ground Zero of Europe’s migration debate as the continent struggles to police its borders while honouring its legal obligations to welcome refugees fleeing conflict, climate change and poverty.
In his homily, Leo thanked the residents of Lampedusa for the “miracle of compassion” they have shown in welcoming migrants and urged Europe to rise to the challenge of the moment and assume its responsibility.
“Indeed, before any intellectual consideration or ideological conviction, the encounter with those who lie before us, stripped of everything, calls us to be close to them,” Leo said, wearing vestments decorated with images of waves.
Preaching from “this far-flung corner of Europe on the Mediterranean Sea,” Leo urged European leaders to address the migration phenomenon in a comprehensive way, integrating immediate relief with a long-term strategies to receive, protect, support and integrate migrants while developing their home countries so no one is forced to migrate.
“Here you have seen not just one, but thousands of human beings fallen into the hands of robbers who have taken everything from them, beat them brutally and walked away, leaving them half-dead,” he said.
