Addressing local authorities on the first day of his visit to Malta on Saturday, open-borders enthusiast Pope Francis dismissed reasonable concerns about unchecked mass migration as “defensive attitudes,” and called for welcoming “great numbers” of migrants.
“Today, when those who cross the Mediterranean in search of salvation are met with fear and the narrative of ‘invasion’ and safeguarding one’s own security at any price seems to be the primary goal,” Francis said, “let us help one another not to view the migrant as a threat and not to yield to the temptation of raising drawbridges and erecting walls.”
“Other people are not a virus from which we need to be protected, but persons to be accepted,” he continued, adding that the Christian ideal is “a summons to overcome suspicion, ingrained mistrust, fear of losing our privacy, all those defensive attitudes which today’s world imposes on us.”
Is it a Christian ideal to allow Christendom to be overrun by a tsunami of migrants from cultures that often are inherently hostile to Christian values and even to Christians themselves? How has that worked out for Europe so far?
“Fear and insecurity have nurtured a certain discouragement and frustration,” Francis added, as if Europeans don’t have legitimate reasons to be afraid and insecure about what is happening to their civilization. “If the complexity of the migration issue is to be properly addressed, it needs to be situated within a broader context of time and space.”
If the complexity of the migration issue is to be properly addressed, Francis needs to take into account the real-world economic and cultural concerns of the Europeans whose society and culture will be severely impacted by what he himself calls “great numbers of people” moving to what he calls “the wealthy north.”
The Mediterranean “needs co-responsibility on the part of Europe, in order to become a new theatre of solidarity and not the harbinger of a tragic shipwreck of civilization,” he concluded. “The mare nostrum should not become the biggest cemetery of Europe.”
If Francis has his way, Europe itself will become a cemetery.