THE SUFFERING THAT NO ONE CAN SEE…
The Cross of Lampedusa
The cross, almost like a protest
In April 2009, carpenter Francesco Tuccio found himself involved in the aid of the victims
of a terrible shipwreck:
“Hundreds of people died, and no one was talking about it. We, the people of Lampedusa,
witnessed that tragedy firsthand; we counted the dead. So, the desire to build a cross
began almost as a protest, a way to give a voice to the victims, since no one else was
doing anything about it. I wanted to represent the suffering that no one can see.”
(Francesco Tuccio, carpenter in Lampedusa)
This is human trafficking…
This is not emigration. It is the trade in human flesh. A responsible state and a civil society
cannot tolerate emigration like this, which is a cruel affront to human dignity.
Those who would like to prevent or limit emigration in the name of patriotic and economic
considerations, and those who would like to leave it to itself in the name of a
misunderstood freedom, either do not reason at all or reason selfishly and irresponsibly.
In fact, by preventing it, one violates a sacred human right; by leaving it to itself, one
renders it ineffective.
(G.B. Scalabrini, Italian Emigration to America: Observations by a Bishop, Piacenza, 1887)
Hospitality or exclusion
The exclusion of migrants is scandalous! Indeed, the exclusion of migrants is criminal; it
causes them to die right before our eyes. And so, today the Mediterranean is the world’s
largest cemetery. The exclusion of migrants is despicable; it is sinful; it is criminal not to
open our doors to those in need.
(Pope Francis, homily, Rome, October 9, 2022)
People come first
People always come before borders, definitions, and institutions.
This awareness is at the heart of Christianity.
(Pope Leo XIV, address at the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, Rimini, August 22,
2026)
St. John Baptist Scalabrini
(1839–1905)
Bishop of Piacenza and Father to the Migrants
I see them, those poor souls who have landed on foreign soil…
While passing through the Milan train station, I saw the vast hall, the side porticoes, and
the adjacent square filled with three or four hundred poorly dressed people. Their faces
revealed the turmoil of emotions that were stirring in their hearts at that moment.
They were emigrants. They came from various provinces of Northern Italy and were
waiting anxiously for the steamship to carry them to the shores of the Mediterranean and
from there to the far-off Americas.
How could I come to their aid?
A flood of melancholy thoughts brought a lump to my throat. Who can imagine – I thought to
myself – the accumulated privations and misfortunes making such a painful decision seem so
sweet to them! How many disappointments does the future hold in store for them, how many
new heartaches?
I picture the poor wretches landing in a strange land, among people who speak a language
they do not understand, easy prey to inhumane exploitation, victims of oppression and
injustice.
Faced with this lamentable situation, I have often asked myself: how can it be remedied?
Man’s Homeland: The World
Emigration, gentlemen, is a law of nature.
It is an inalienable natural right. In almost all cases, it is not a pleasure, but an inescapable
necessity. Emigration elevates human destinies, broadening the concept of homeland
beyond material and political borders, making the world everyone’s homeland.
(from the writings of St. G.B. Scalabrini)
