Pope Leo XIV visits Lampedusa and honors migrants who died at sea

The day's program began at the port of Lampedusa. Leo XIV reached the roughly 150-meter-long pier that has carried the name Molo Papa Francesco for years, where people who have crossed the Mediterranean continue to disembark. In this place, often the scene of dramatic arrivals, the pope paused in prayer. "Der Papst besuchte dann das 'Tor nach Europa' genannte Denkmal für Geflüchtete und sprach kurz mit einer Migranten-Familie", according to reports.

Prayer at the port

The pontiff then went to the island's cemetery, where, in addition to deceased residents, drowned refugees are also buried, many of them anonymously. Among the graves visited were those of children, including that of little Youssef Ali Kanneh, who died at six months old in 2020 in a shipwreck in the Mediterranean. "Aufgrund seiner geografischen Lage und seiner institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen ist Europa in der Lage, die Krise in diesem Bereich ganzheitlich anzugehen", Leo XIV said during the visit, recalling the need for a long-term strategic plan.

In the cemetery every year the victims of the shipwreck of October 3, 2013 are commemorated, in which at least 368 people died. "In gewisser Weise sind wir alle Migranten", the pontiff had said in mid-June during a visit to a refugee reception center in Tenerife, in the Spanish Canary Islands, reiterating a message that also characterized his Lampedusa visit. The phrase adds to a series of statements in which Leo XIV has stressed the need for a respectful approach toward migrants.

Remembering the 2013 shipwreck

The pope then continued on to the Porta d'Europa monument, where he met a group of 15 migrants hosted at the hotspot run by the Red Cross on the island. "Der Papst besuchte dann das 'Tor nach Europa' genannte Denkmal für Geflüchtete und sprach kurz mit einer Migranten-Familie", the chronicles report. On that occasion Leo XIV offered words of closeness: "Heute bin ich hier, um Ihnen zu sagen: Der Papst steht Ihnen weiterhin nahe, unterstützt Sie und ermutigt Sie", Leo XIV said, greeting those present.

Among the most moving moments of the visit, the pope listened to the testimony of a boy who had arrived right in Lampedusa ten years earlier. "Vor zehn Jahren hat meine Geschichte hier in Lampedusa begonnen. Ich war allein und hatte alles verloren - besonders meine Mama", the boy told the pope, showing a ball: "Seitdem ist der Ball in meinem Herzen geblieben und ich habe nie wieder aufgehört zu spielen" The boy had written his words in a letter and drawn the ball on the page.

The encounter with the migrants

Leo XIV continued his remarks with a direct greeting: "Ich grüße die Migranten, die hier sind: Sie selbst haben auf ihrem Weg nicht nur Solidarität erlebt, sondern sie oft auch selbst gepflegt, als Arme, die den noch Ärmeren helfen". The pope then continued by meeting the local community and wanted to express gratitude: "Danke, Brüder und Schwestern, denn es ist keineswegs selbstverständlich, dass ihr euch dem Nächsten zuwendet - das geschieht nicht automatisch"

On the pier, beside the undulating limestone column bearing the inscription "Pier Papst Franziskus: Ort der Ankunft, der Hoffnung und der Menschlichkeit", the pope blessed a plaque in memory of Francis. With this gesture Leo XIV wanted to remember the commitment of the Argentine, who died in April 2025, on behalf of refugees, and the fact that with that visit Lampedusa had become the first stop of a pontificate marked by strong attention to migrants.

In the message delivered during the visit Leo XIV spoke of migration as a "historic challenge for European societies", echoing the criticism already expressed by Francis about the "globalization of indifference". "Der Pontifex bezeichnete das Phänomen der Migration als 'historische Herausforderung für die europäischen Gesellschaften'", news agencies report. The pope then called for integrating emergency aid into a long-term strategic plan: it is a matter of "Nothilfe mit einem langfristigen strategischen Plan verbindet, der in der Lage ist, Migranten aufzunehmen, zu schützen, zu fördern, zu integrieren und der zugleich Entwicklung begünstigt, damit niemand zur Auswanderung gezwungen ist", the pope said.

A message to Europe

The visit continued with a Mass celebrated on the island before the pontiff's return to Rome. It was Leo XIV's first stay in Lampedusa, about thirteen years after the visit Francis made in July 2013. The trip represented a political and pastoral signal, at a time when the debate over European migration policies remains open and the massacres in the Mediterranean continue.

According to data from the "Missing Migrants" project of the International Organization for Migration, since 2014 a total of 35,070 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean (figure updated to May 4). Lampedusa remains the symbol of this dramatic route, but also of a memory that the Church has sought to keep alive with successive papal visits.

The choice of Lampedusa as the new pontiff's first European visit was also read as a message of continuity with Francis. The island has become a symbolic place not only because of the 2013 shipwreck, which brought the question of migration flows from North Africa to the continent's attention, but also because of the construction of an ethic of welcoming that has involved residents, volunteers and humanitarian organizations.

The diplomatic context

The stop at the Porta d'Europa fits within this context: it is a monument dedicated to refugees and inaugurated about twenty years ago, in front of which many public ceremonies have been held over time. "Anschließend besuchte er das Denkmal Porta d'Europa und feierte vor seiner Rückreise nach Rom eine Messe", the chronicles report.

On the international level, the visit comes amid a series of tense diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the U.S. administration. In May 2025, Leo XIV had received from James David Vance, Vice President of the USA, an envelope that had been placed, apparently unopened, on the pontiff's desk. Since then it has been discussed whether it contained an invitation from Donald Trump to the celebrations for the USA's 250th anniversary.

The visit to Lampedusa, in this context, was presented by Vatican media as an indirect response: the pope chose to focus his attention on the issue of migrants, a topic on which Leo XIV had already spoken in the past with a series of statements firmly in favor of respectful treatment of refugees. "In gewisser Weise sind wir alle Migranten", he had said in June in Tenerife.

Leo XIV concluded the day with the blessing of the plaque dedicated to Francis, sealing a symbolic handover. The choice of returning to Lampedusa thirteen years after his predecessor's visit also represented a tribute to the contribution that visit had offered to the theme of human mobility, the root causes of migration and solidarity.

The plaque in memory of Francis

The pope's hope is that Europe can tackle the crisis with adequate tools: "Aufgrund seiner geografischen Lage und seiner institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen ist Europa in der Lage, die Krise in diesem Bereich ganzheitlich anzugehen". Leo XIV then called for combining immediate rescue with a long-term strategy to prevent people from being "forced to emigrate".

The visit closed with the return to Rome on Friday evening, after a day packed with appointments, meetings and prayers. The pope left the island having renewed an appeal that for over twelve years has run through the pontificates of Francis and Leo XIV: attention to the most vulnerable, to those who cross the sea in search of a future, to the victims of a route that continues to claim lives.