By launching, from the Canary Islands, a powerful appeal in favor of migrants, Leo XIV addresses all of us, whether we are simple citizens, believers or agnostics, political leaders in the northern half or the southern half of the world. At this port which sees the arrival of men and women from Africa, Léon launched a cry of alarm, but also invoked the right for everyone to stay at home, in a country without war, without corruption and without famine. We know: no one leaves their house happily. No one embarks, pregnant or with barely born children, on makeshift boats which we know can capsize at any moment. Europeans, Westerners, we have undoubtedly forgotten what “risking one’s life” means.
It is not, obviously, a question of calling for the abolition of all borders, because we still need to be able to integrate those we welcome. But this argument should not be enough to close one’s eyes and ease one’s conscience. Leo XIV reminds everyone, as Francis did before him, of the danger of getting used to bodies floating on the Mediterranean or the Atlantic. Or worse: to no longer see them, considering the boats and canoes loaded with men and women as distant realities, not concerning us, or as being the prerogative of a few volunteers.
Obviously, it will be easy to say that the pope is in his role, that he ignores the imperatives of the conduct of a nation, and that it is sometimes good to distinguish morality and politics. But precisely, if politics is so weak today, is it not because it ignores the moral dimension of the conduct of public affairs? Basically, Léon invites everyone to change their logic, to move away from that of flows and stocks, tables of figures and percentages. To enter that of people, men, women and children.
