“You are Close to the Church’s Heart”

Abstract

April 19, 2015, will be remembered as the day on which a boat carrying an estimated 800 to 1, 000 migrants sank in the Mediterranean Sea. Only 28 of those aboard are believed to have survived.’ While particularly awful due to the scale of the tragedy, there have been many similar incidents. On October 3, 2013, a boat filled beyond capacity with more than 500 children, women, and men traveling from Libya to Italy caught fire and capsized just off the coast of Lampedusa, Sicily. Despite the efforts of the coastguard and some fishermen from Lampedusa, 368 people—mostly Eritrean who had paid $1, 600 each for passage—drowned. These represent just two examples of the many shipwrecks in which migrcznts have died during their journey toward the European continent, particularly during the last 15 years. On July 8, 2013, for his first trip outside of Rome, Pope Francis decided to visit this seemingly insignificant island on the border between Europe and Africa. He explained the reason behind this decision in his homily: the news of migrants dying at sea in their journey to Europe was “like a painful thorn in my heart. So I felt that I had to come here today, to pray and to offer a sign of my closeness, but also to challenge our consciences lest this tragedy be repeated.”²