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Welcome to the wee little bit of Italian rock – only 7 miles long – between Tunisia and Sicily known as “Lampedusa.”On the island of Lampedusa in #Italy, more than 10,000 illegal immigrants have arrived by boat from Africa, outnumbering its population of only 6,000.pic.twitter.com/GaGHah8ahY— THE GLOBAL NEWS. (@THE_GLOBE_N) September 23, 2023AdvertisementPope Francis, who has yet to open even St Peter’s Square to help share the burden he recently urged to rest of Europe to keep sucking up, hasn’t made many friends in Italy with his one way exhortations to welcome the hordes.From Libya to Lampedusa. Pope Francis says that...

ROME (AP) – Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni vowed Friday to take “extraordinary measures” to deal with an influx of migrants, including calling anew for a naval blockade of North Africa, after a week in which more than 6,000 people arrived within a day on the island of Lampedusa from Tunisia. Meloni invited the head of the European Commission to visit Lampedusa with her to see the conditions firsthand and called for a new European Union migration deal with Tunisia to be put into effect. In a video distributed by her office, Meloni said that Europe needs a “paradigm change” to...

Pope Francis has prayed for migrants in a special Mass, saying they are people and not just a social issue. The Mass, celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday, marked the sixth anniversary of the pope’s visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa on July 8, 2013. […] The pope said, “they are persons. These are not mere social or migrant issues. They are the symbol of all those rejected by today’s globalized society.” …

Lampedusa, Francis’ Great Symbol, Has Fallen The 6000 inhabitants of the Italian island of Lampedusa, between Malta and the Tunisia, have turned their back to Pope Francis. They overwhelmingly voted for the Catholic Matteo Salvini and his Lega which is fighting illegal immigration. The Lega received 45%, Salvini 410 personal votes, his leftwing opponent 250. Francis and his spin-machine have worked hard against the Lega, simultaneously promoting the pro-decadence ex-Communists who are pushed by the oligarchs. Since the early 2000s, Lampedusa, has become a prime destination for human traffickers Importing illegal immigrants from Africa, Arabia and Asia into Italy. In...

The mayor of the Italian island of Lampedusa, destination for many migrants setting off from Tunisia, complained on Sunday that his town was on the verge of societal collapse. Groups of migrants were flouting laws, harassing women and getting drunk, Mayor Salvatore Martello said in an open letter to Italian news agency ANSA and in comments to Italian news outlets. "Threats, harassments, thefts, Lampedusa is about to collapse," Martello wrote, calling for the closure of the "useless" migrant center on the island. "Police are powerless," he wrote. "The bars are full of Tunisians who are drunk and harass women. I...

A group of Tunisian migrants set fire to the main pavilion in a Lampedusa refugee welcome center Tuesday night, causing severe damage, after learning they would be repatriated to their home country, according to reports. The fire enveloped the first aid and reception center of Imbriacola in Lampedusa, which presently houses some 530 asylum-seekers, though no injuries have been reported. This is not the first time that migrants have set the pavilion ablaze. Similar acts of arson occurred in 2009 and then in 2011. After hours battling the fire, which was set around 10:30pm, teams of firefighters stationed on the...

Leading up to the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Catholic Churches in France have been placed under police protection and have been strongly advised to increase security in fear of a potential Islamist terror attack. In a joint message to Catholic dioceses Tuesday, France's Interior Ministry and bishops' conference warned that "every religious gathering, whatever its magnitude … is vulnerable today to acts of malevolence, which may extend to terrorism." "Observing simple rules may allow you, without excessive distrust, to ensure your security and that of your community, while preserving the calm (and) sharing openness to...

Trenton, N.J. - Jesus was the "divine immigrant" who lived his life "traveling from place to place," Bishop David O'Connell of Trenton told the congregation at a midday "Justice for Immigrants" Mass Oct. 11 at St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral. "Sacred Scripture tell us where he was from and what his ancestral lineage was," the bishop said in his homily. "But nowhere in the Bible do we find his permanent address, the location of his house, where he lived after beginning his public ministry. "He lived and worked as an immigrant, an itinerant preacher, on many levels," the bishop...

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso’s trip to the Italian island of Lampedusa began with boos and shouts of “shame” and “murderers” from some of the residents, TV footage has shown. In the meantime, lawmakers prepared to re-examine the EU’s border surveillance systems. EurActiv France reports. Barroso, EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano paid a visit yesterday (9 October) to Lampedusa, the small Italian island near the coast of which some 270 immigrants drowned in a shipwreck last week. …

(Vatican Radio) The death of several hundred migrants off the Italian island of Lampedusa this month has focused international spotlight on the broader, complex questions of EU policies regarding immigration and integration. According to one American Muslim leader, the United States model of integration has much to teach European countries at the present time. Syrian-born Imam Mohamad Bashar Arafat is founder and president of the Civilizations Exchange and Cooperation Foundation, which is based in Baltimore, in the United States. The organisation works to promote cooperation, rather than confrontation, between young people of different religions, cultures and backgrounds. He spoke to...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis, like Islam's Sufi mystic theologians and poets, "is trying to do good for the sake of the Good One, motivated by love and compassion," said the president of the Islamic Affairs Council of Maryland. Mohamad Bashar Arafat, a Syrian who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, was visiting the Vatican and speaking to groups in Rome in early October as a guest of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See as part of the U.S. State Department's international speakers program. In an interview with Catholic News Service, Arafat said...

Pope Francis made a private visit to the Astalli refugee center in Rome on Tuesday, and, while meeting with several hundred refugees, singled out a Syrian family to listen to their story. The family was given time with the pope during the visit to represent the present emergency in their homeland, an Astalli representative told Radio Vaticana. The Pope also talked with a Sudanese man. Astalli is a high-volume refugee center run by Pope Francis’ own Jesuit order—more than 21 thousand refugees, from regions including Afghanistan, Egypt, and sub-Saharan Africa, passed through Centro Astalli last year. Many of the undocumented...

Los Angeles, Calif., Aug 23, 2013 / 03:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Stressing the importance of personal witness to counter secular trends among Hispanics, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia today praised the work of the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders. “Hispanic culture still has a soul formed by an encounter with Jesus Christ, and the humanity and compassion that flow from it,” Archbishop Chaput said Aug. 23 at the association's national conference. “These things are worth fighting for and sharing with others. Faith matters because it gives meaning to the word ‘human’ in ‘human beings.’ It matters because it makes...

During his visit on Monday, Francis called for greater compassion for the tens of thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East who each year make the hazardous crossing from Tunisia and Libya to the remote island, Italy's southernmost territory. He said the migrants were "brothers and sisters of ours trying to escape difficult situations to find some serenity and peace." He prayed for the thousands of migrants who have drowned in the Mediterranean during boat sinkings – "they were looking for a better place for themselves and their families, but instead they found death," he said. While his...

"On flight from Rio de Janeiro to Rome" Journalists fired improvised questions at the Pope for one hour and twenty minutes. The Pope agreed to hold the press conference straight after take-off, despite how tired he was after an eventful World Youth Day week in Brazil. Francis surprised journalists with his willingness to answer all questions put to him, even those which touched on really thorny issues like the reform of the Vatican Bank (IOR), the Ricca case, the gay lobby, Vatileaks and even the content of the black leather bad he carried on to the plane which flew him...

Thirty-one migrants, including nine women, drowned off the coast of Libya during an attempted crossing to Italy on a dinghy according to survivors who managed to complete the journey. A dinghy carrying 53 migrants capsized on Friday evening, and witnesses said 31 of those who had been thrown off it drowned in the accident. The twenty-two survivors, who come from Nigeria, Gambia, Benin and Senegal, said the dinghy had capsized after three days at sea. They were rescued by a passing merchant ship and taken to Lampedusa island, the reports said.

First published on FrontPage Magazine. By Enza Ferreri One could be justified for being perplexed about Pope Francis’s choice of Lampedusa, a tiny island off the coast of Sicily and Italy’s — indeed Europe’s — southernmost tip, as the destination of his very first official visit, which took place on July 8. Not a world capital, not a place in some important geopolitical region of the globe. What is significant, even symbolic, about Lampedusa is its geography: The small island, with a population of 5,000, is positioned in the middle of the Mediterranean, making it close to the Muslim...

(Vatican Radio) Caritas Internationalis President Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga has released a statement backing Pope Francis’ call to welcome refugees as our brothers and sisters. Cardinal Maradiaga issued his statement on Monday 8 July, the day in which Pope Francis journeyed to the Island of Lampedusa, the landing point of tens of thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe in hope of a better future. Please find below the full text of the statement issued by Caritas Internationalis: “The Pope’s visit to Lampedusa reminded us of the plight of millions of refugees around the world. Religious leaders and faith based...

"...It is curious that as Catholic leaders are campaigning essentially for amnesty, providing a plethora of images of “needy,” “struggling” families being “welcomed” by those who supposedly have “more,” there is scarce mention of another concept that many of these same Catholic leaders have highly prized, particularly in their recent struggles with the U.S. government: the rule of law. The notion that those who have come to the United States illegally should be exempted from the nation’s laws is not only not mentioned by these Catholic leaders, but also seemingly dismissed. The fact that many Americans have been the victims...

One of the first things he did upon his arrival on the Island of Lampedusa, Pope Francis laid a wreath in the waters in memory of the tens of thousands of migrants who have died trying to reach Europe in unsafe and overcrowded boats. Most of them have no names. We do not know their personal stories, their hopes and certainly not their faces. But almost 20.000 people are thought to have died during their journey of hope, across the Mediterranean sea, in the past 25 years. The migrants are all illegal so of course there are no official...