Last week president Emmanuel Macron hosted two prestigious figures to France and one proved more problematical than the other.
King Charles’s State visit was a success, the perfect mix of pomp and ceremony and casual walkabouts. The British monarchy avoided controversy when he addressed the French senate, merely referring to the “existential challenge” of climate change. His Royal Highness was given a prolonged standing ovation by the Senate.
As the King departed France, there arrived another guest in the form of Pope Francis, the keynote speaker at the third annual Rencontres méditerranéennes event. Bringing together clerical representatives from seventy countries, the purpose of the event is examine and discuss the challenges facing the Mediterranean region.
These have never been greater, and as if to underline this fact in the days before the conference, some 11,000 migrants from Africa landed on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa. So far this year nearly 150,000 migrants have arrived on Italian soil, figures not seen since the height of the migrant crisis in 2015/16.
In his address, Pope Francis said that “those who take refuge in our midst should not be viewed as a heavy burden to be borne: If we consider them instead as brothers and sisters, they will appear to us above all as gifts…the future will not lie in being closed, which is a return to the past”.
President Macron, who attended the Mass held by the Pope in Marseille’s football stadium on Saturday, responded to the Pontiff’s remarks during a television interview on Sunday evening. “The Pope is right to call for this leap against indifference”, he said. However, in what might be seen as a mild rebuke, Macron said that France “cannot take in all the misery in the world”.
Other politicians were more critical of the Pope. Marion Marechal, a practising Catholic and the second-in-command of Eric Zemmour’s right-wing Reconquest Party, advised the Pontiff to steer clear of political issues, particularly as he “does not know the type of immigration we are experiencing”.
A similar point was made by Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, the party of Marine Le Pen. “He’s Argentinian, and he’s not aware of the problem of immigration in Europe today, which is destabilising our societies,” said Bardella.
He also mocked the Pope’s description of Marseille as “a haven of peace”. So far this year more than forty people have been shot dead in a war between drug gangs for control of the city’s market. In the most recent killing, a student, unconnected with the drugs trade, was killed in her bedroom by a stray bullet from a shootout on the street outside.
“Allow me, like all French people, to take offence and say that he doesn’t know Marseille,” said Bardella, who added that he preferred “the wisdom of his predecessor Benedict XVI, who said that states have the right to regulate migratory flows”.
It is an interesting point. Pope Benedict was a European, who lived in the continent throughout his life, and was well aware of the history of migration, particularly post-war. Francis is the first Pope from the southern hemisphere and the first non-European since Gregory III in the eighth century.
Prior to his election as Pope in 2013, Francis had lived nearly all his life in South America. He arrived in the Vatican just as the migrant crisis really exploded following the death of the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. In 2010, for example, 4,406 migrants landed in Italy from Africa; in 2014, it was 170,100.
All that Pope Francis has known, therefore, is a constant passage of small boats setting sail across the Mediterranean for Europe. To him it is normal; to the majority of Europeans it is not.
The numbers arriving are simply unsustainable, but they are likely to increase. In a recent interview, the former president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, warned that the “migrant crisis has only just begun”, and that with the United Nations forecasting that the population of Africa will increase from 1.3b to 2.5bn between now and 2050, Europe must act rigorously to defend its borders.
Pope Francis is well-intentioned but misguided when he talks about migrants. Sarkozy and Macron are more realistic. Europe cannot take in all the misery in the world.
People fleeing war and persecution – such as the Christians in 13 African countries listed recently in the Religious Freedom Report – should be welcomed as much as possible. But economic migrants should not, at least not in the current vast numbers and certainly not without a thorough background check. Too many dangerous men have slipped into Europe posing as migrants, such as the two Islamic extremists who were part of the terror cell that slaughtered 130 Parisians in 2015.
The brutal reality is that Europe hasn’t the infrastructure or the economy to accommodate millions of young Africans. The continent is in decline; in France 7.6 per cent of the population – or 4.8m people – live below the breadline, and in Britain a record number of households are dependent on food banks.
In an interview preceding the Pope’s visit, Eric Zemmour asked why migrants “only come to France and Europe”. Why not Japan, Australia, Russia or China?
Or why not South America?
In his address in Marseille, the Pope stressed the need for “fraternity” in easing the “heavy burden” of the migrant crisis. He is right. But why should this burden be borne only by Europe?
Perhaps Pope Francis could use his influence to initiate a relocation scheme to his native South America in the name of fairness and fraternity.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.