As reported by Vatican News, Pope Francis on a Sept. 22 visit to the French port city of Marseille denounced what he called the “fanaticism of indifference” against the hundreds of thousands of migrants attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean to Europe. In a speech given at the Monument to the Heroes and Victims of the Sea, near the Basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde, the Pope said: “We can no longer watch the drama of shipwrecks, caused by the cruel trafficking and the fanaticism of indifference…. People who are at risk of drowning when abandoned on the waves must be rescued. It is a duty of humanity; it is a duty of civilization. On the one hand, there is fraternity, which makes the human community flourish with goodness; on the other, indifference, which bloodies the Mediterranean. We find ourselves at a crossroads of civilization.”
The Pope called the Mediterranean a “huge cemetery, where many brothers and sisters are deprived even of the right to a grave.” He issued a special thank you to humanitarian groups involved with rescuing migrants stranded at sea, and called efforts by European governments to block their efforts “gestures of hatred.”
