San Antonio archbishop recalls Pope Francis' 'advocacy for migrants globally'

Our Common Humanity: Pope Francis' Call to Welcome, Protect, and Integrate Migrants

Pope Francis greets immigrants at the port in Lampedusa, Italy, in this file photo July 8, 2013. During his visit, the pontiff urged people not to be part of the “globalization of indifference” to the plight of the millions worldwide who are immigrants and refugees. (Photo: CNSmigrant/L’Osservatore Romano via CPP) On July 8, 2013, Pope Francis traveled to the little-known Italian island of Lampedusa.  Upon his arrival, Pope Francis threw a wreat…

San Antonio archbishop recalls Pope Francis' 'advocacy for migrants globally'

Special liturgies are planned for a later date in both English and Spanish at San Fernando Cathedral.

Jorge Bergoglio did not hesitate to use his pontificate to show the pain of the people in the street, the prisoners and the sick. His first pontifical trip went to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, on July 8, 2013, where the immigrants who manage to arrive from Africa to Europe reside. The world of the poor, the prisoner, the sick and the immigrant is very harsh when one is suffering from one of those afflictions.

Although many people do not know it, the first trip of the pontificate of Pope Francis went to a small Italian island of the Mediterranean Sea called Lampedusa. The visit was organized shortly after the beginning of his papacy and without much preparation. But, more than a decade after his arrival, he is still remembered as a historical fact. The reason for his trip was to pray on the lands where, to this day, many migrants from various nations …

VATICAN CITY — When Pope Francis chose the small Italian island of Lampedusa as his destination for his first trip out of Rome after his election, he sent a signal to the world that migration would be a decisive issue in his pontificate. Standing at a point of entry for thousands of migrants seeking refuge in Europe, he lamented what he called the “globalization of indifference”: a society desensitized by the suffering of those forced to flee th…

During his twelve years of Pontificate, Pope Francis visited up to 66 countries. Despite his health problems, the Pope’s longest trip was in September 2024, a journey that took him to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, to end the year after in Belgium, Luxembourg and France (the last country he visited). Lampedusa, Iraq or Cuba Lampedusa (Italy) was the first trip that Pope Francis made and, perhaps for that reason, marked th…