The Via Crucis of “Papa” Francesco: for immigrants and against closed ports
Roma, 17 Apr – One Way of the Cross which must inspire the faithful to commit themselves to "not making those who are dying today in too many ordeals around the world feel lonely, including collection fields similar to lagers in transit countries, ships that are refused safe port, the llengthy bureaucratic negotiations for the final destination, the centers of permanence, the hot spots, camps for seasonal workers". This is what Sister Eugenia Bonetti wrote in her meditations at the Colosseum, presided over by Pope Francis and published by the Vatican publishing house. Clear the reference therefore to the so-called "closed ports" and the need to welcome immigrants. The usual rhetoric from Bergoglio In short, who instructed this nun to give voice to his policy increasingly oriented towards the opening of borders without any ifs or buts.

The promised land

The text, Of 61 pages, has a clear accusatory tone towards the Italian government: “Who remembers in this era of quick news those twenty-six young Nigerians swallowed by the waves, whose funeral was celebrated in Salerno? Their ordeal was hard and long. First the crossing of the Sahara desert, piled onto makeshift buses. Then the forced stop in the frightening collection centers in Libya. Finally the jump into the sea, where they found death at the gates of the 'promised land'". Ecco, this last sentence is particularly significant for understanding the message launched by the Pope. Who is it that urges Africans to reach the “promised land”? Who promises this land? The biblical reference is even more emblematic, if we consider that it serves to make those who emigrate believe that they are destined for another land, what a second the Church would even be theirs, because "promise".
The text then highlights “the social situation, and political economy of migrants and victims of human trafficking" which "questions us and shakes us. All of us, especially Christians, we must grow in the awareness that we are all responsible for the problem and we can and must all be part of the solution". This is without a doubt, ma who leads these migrants to be victims of trafficking? The Church does not question this, or rather it seems to tell us that somehow the culprits are those who defend the borders, not those who put them on boats and try to overtake them illegally.

A question to the Pope

“The desert and the seas – we read again- they have become the new cemeteries of today. There are no answers to these deaths. However, there are responsibilities. Brothers who let other brothers die. Men, donne, children we couldn't or didn't want to save. While governments discuss, locked in the halls of power, the Sahara is filled with skeletons of people who could not resist the fatigue, to hunger, thirsty… How much cruelty is visited on those who flee: the journeys of desperation, blackmail and torture, the sea transformed into a watery grave".
Certainly touching words, but once again we have some questions, contrary to what Bergoglio claims, we definitely ask ourselves this. On the contrary, he will forgive us if we ask him one: non è che uomini, women and children die at sea when someone calls for the "promised land" for them and the smugglers consequently make them board boats?
Eugenio Palazzini

source – https://www.ilprimatonazionale.it/cronaca/via-crucis-papa-francesco-immigrati-porti-chiusi-113824/