Pope Leo warns Europe’s migrant traffickers to repent or face hell
He urged traffickers to repent and called for legal pathways and stronger integration as more than 3,000 people died on the route last year.
- On Friday, Pope Leo XIV warned human traffickers in Tenerife they will face divine justice, demanding they "repent" for exploiting migrants on the Atlantic route during his final day in the Canary Islands.
- Upon arriving Thursday, Leo threw flowers into the sea from a port nicknamed the "Dock of Shame" to honor thousands who died crossing from West Africa, fulfilling Pope Francis' wish to commemorate migrant lives lost.
- Arrivals peaked at nearly 47,000 in 2024 but fell dramatically to over 3,000 in early 2026, while smugglers charge thousands of euros and force passengers into black market labor to repay debts incurred during the journey.
- Leo confirmed himself as heir to Pope Francis' migration preaching, imploring receiving communities to integrate survivors and spare them from a "silent shipwreck" of abandonment after perilous crossings.
- Next month on July 4, Leo will visit Lampedusa to denounce the "globalization of indifference," underscoring the Catholic Church's mandate to "welcome the stranger" amid anti-migrant sentiment in Europe and the United States.
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Pope to Human Traffickers: Repent or Face God's Wrath
Pope Leo XIV warned people smugglers on Friday that they will face God's wrath for exploiting the desperation of migrants, demanding they stop and repent during his final day in the epicenter of the African migration route to Europe. For the second day in a row in the Canary Islands,...
Pope Leon XIV issued a strong appeal on Friday to traffickers and other people who take advantage of migrants and human suffering to repent, during a meeting with migrants and workers for integration in Tenerife, in the Spanish Canary Islands, transmits France24.
Leo XIV to the people of the center "Les Raíces" of Tenerife: "The love of God knows no boundaries, does not make distinctions." "We are all migrants." Mass on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, at the port of Santa Cruz: a "special place" for poor people in the mission of the Church.
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