On the second and last day of his pastoral trip to Malta, Pope Francis returns to pray for Ukraine at the end of the mass. “Let us now pray for peace, thinking of the humanitarian tragedy of the tormented Ukraine, still under the bombardments of this sacrilegious war”, the Pontiff said at the Angelus. Yesterday Bergoglio did not rule out the hypothesis of his trip to Kiev. Ukraine was also at the center of his first speech in Valletta in which he evoked the specter of an “extended cold war” and spoke of “some powerful, sadly locked up in anachronistic claims of nationalist interests, who provoke and foment conflicts” .
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Ukrainians attend Pope Francis’ homily
The final moment of the Maltese journey of the Holy Father, who returned to Rome this evening, was today at the “Giovanni XXIII Peace Lab” Center for migrants, in Hal Far: the last public appointment of his 36th international apostolic journey in the name of hospitality. Outside, around 200 migrants awaited him. But there was also a group of about 50 Ukrainians – several of them in their traditional clothes – demonstrating with the flags of their country and signs with words like “No fly zone” and “Save our children”. Probably Ukrainian citizens who live in Malta, and are there to sensitize the Pontiff on the issue of closing the skies in the country invaded by Russia.
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Pope Francis meets migrants in Hal Far, MaltaBergoglio to migrants: “The shipwreck of civilization threatens everyone”
And addressing migrants, Pope Francis said: “Your stories suggest those of thousands and thousands of people who in recent days have been forced to flee Ukraine due to of war, unjust and savage – so Francis – but also to those of many other men and women who, in search of a safe place, were forced to leave their home and land in Asia, Africa and the Americas “.
Then Bergoglio returned to the themes of his prayers and speeches which he reiterated throughout his Maltese trip, an invitation to the island in the center of the Mediterranean, a destination for migration, to be “truly a safe haven”. “I wish Malta to always treat with rare humanity those who land on its shores, to truly be a safe haven for them – remarked Pope Francis, taking up a quote from the Acts of the Apostles on the shipwreck of Saint Paul, right on the Maltese coast -” in this meeting with you migrants, the meaning of the motto of my trip to Malta emerges fully “(” They treated us with rare humanity “), underlines the Pontiff at the meeting at the” Giovanni XXIII Peace Lab “Refugee Center, in Hal Far.” shipwreck is an experience that thousands of men, women and children have done in recent years in the Mediterranean. And unfortunately for many of them it was tragic “.” How can we save ourselves – the Pope asked – from this shipwreck that risks sinking the ship of our civilization
Behaving with humanity “.
Meeting the 200 migrants of the reception center, Francis wanted to pray with them for the 90 who died yesterday in the latest tragic shipwreck:” Just yesterday – so Bergoglio – there was a rescue off the coast of Libya of four people of a boat that carried about ninety : let us pray for these brothers of ours who have died in this way “, the Pope invited.
