· Vatican City·

On the afternoon of Friday, December 3, Pope Francis hosted a universal celebration with immigrants in the Parish Church of the Holy Cross, ending his apostolic visit to Cyprus, where he was received by the Latin Patriarch Pier Batista. Welcome to Pierbattista Pizzaballa. The following is the English speech delivered by the Pope after listening to the testimony of volunteers from Caritas Cyprus and four young immigrants.

I am very happy to be with you and conclude my visit to Cyprus with this prayer meeting. I thank the Patriarchs Pizzaballa and Béchara Raï and Ms. Elisabeth of Caritas. I greet the representatives of different Christian faiths in Cyprus with deep affection and gratitude.

I want to say "thank you" to you young immigrants from the bottom of my heart. They have provided your testimony. About a month ago, I received a copy of them in advance. They left a deep impression on me and heard them again today. Not only moved, but I also have a powerful feeling that I have encountered real beauty. When Jesus cried out: "Lord of heaven and earth, Father, I thank you, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the wise, and revealed them to the babies" (Matthew 11:25). I also praise Heavenly Father because this is happening today, here, and all over the world. God is revealing his kingdom to children, his kingdom of love, justice and peace.

After listening to your words, we have a better understanding of all the prophetic powers of God’s Word. He told us through the apostle Paul: “You are no longer outsiders, no longer aliens. You are in the same kingdom with the saints and are also members of the church. God’s Home" (Ephesians 2:19). These words were written centuries ago to the Christians in Ephesus not far from here, but they are still as timely as ever, as if they were written for us today: "You are no longer strangers, but compatriots. Up". This is the prophecy of the church: a community, despite its limited human nature, can still embody God's dream. Because God has dreams, just like you, Mariami from the Democratic Republic of Congo describes himself as "full of dreams." Like you, God dreams of a peaceful world in which all his children live like brothers and sisters. God wants this, God dreams of this. We are the ones who don't want it.

Immigrant brothers and sisters, your arrival is of great significance to this celebration. Your testimony is like a "mirror", held before us, our Christian community. When you, Tamara from Sri Lanka, told us, people often ask, "Who are you?": The cruel experience of immigrants puts our identity into question. "Is this me? I don't know... Where are my roots? Who am I?" When you ask these questions, you remind us that sometimes we are also asked the same question: "Who are you?" Sadly The thing is, many times, what is really asked is: "Which side are you on?", "Which group do you belong to?" However, as you said, we are not numbers, not names on the list; we are each other's "brothers" "Sisters", "friends", "believers", "neighbors". However, when groups or political interests including national interests begin to push, many of us are eventually put aside and become slaves when we don’t want them. Because interest always enslaves, it always creates slaves. Love is vast, the opposite of hatred, and it sets us free.

When you, Maccolins from Cameroon, told us that you were "hurt by hatred" in your life, you talked about this, and you talked about the harm caused by your interests: you reminded us that hatred also poisons our interpersonal relationships and we Christians . As you said, this changed us; it left a deep and lasting mark. It is a poison. Yes, your enthusiasm when you speak makes us feel this. Hatred is a poison that is difficult to remove, a distorted mentality that makes us not see ourselves as brothers and sisters, but instead sees each other as enemies, rivals, and even objects that can be sold or exploited.

When you, Rozh from Iraq, said that you are a person "on the go", you remind us that we are a community on the go; we are moving from conflict to communion. On this long and bumpy road, we should not be afraid of our differences, but of the narrowness and prejudice that will prevent us from truly meeting and traveling together. Closed thoughts and prejudice have re-established the wall of division, and the hostility between us has been overthrown by Christ (see Ephesians 2:14). Our journey towards complete unity can only be advanced to the point where we fix our eyes on Jesus together, and fix our eyes on him. He is "our peace" (ibid.), "corner stone" (verse 20). It is him, Lord Jesus, that we meet in front of the marginalized and abandoned brothers and sisters. Facing immigrants who are despised, rejected, caged, exploited...

In all these ways, God speaks to us through your dreams. The danger is that many times we do not allow our dreams to enter, and we would rather sleep than dream. It's easy to look at it from another angle. In this world, we have become accustomed to a culture of indifference, a culture of looking in another direction to sleep peacefully. However, dreaming like that is impossible. God speaks through your dreams. God will not speak through people without dreams, because they have everything, or because their hearts are hardened. God calls us not to be satisfied with a divided world and a divided Christian community, but to cross the history described by his own dream: human dreams of breaking away from the walls of division, free from hostility, no more strangers, but only Limited to compatriots, as we heard Paul said in the paragraph I just mentioned. Diversified fellow citizens, but proud of this diversity and individuality, this is a gift from God. Diversity, proud of diversity, but always reconciled, always brothers and sisters.

May this island marked by painful division—from here I can see that wall—become a workshop of brotherhood by the grace of God. I thank all those who have worked hard to achieve this goal. We must realize that this island is generous, but it cannot be omnipotent, because the number of people arriving is greater than the possibility of their insertion, integration, companionship and promotion. Its geographical proximity may make it easier...but it is not easy. We must understand the restrictions imposed on the island’s leaders. But on this island, I saw this in the leaders I met. There was a promise to become a free workshop by the grace of God. If two things can happen, it will happen. First, effectively recognize the dignity of everyone (see Fratelli Tutti, 8). Our dignity cannot be sold; it cannot be rented out; it must not be wasted. Hold your head high and say: I am a child of God; I have my dignity. The effective recognition of this dignity is the ethical foundation, the universal foundation, and the core of the Christian social doctrine. Second, open trust in God the Father of All; this is the "leaven" we are called to provide as believers (cf. ibid., 272).

If both of these things can happen, dreams can be transformed into daily journeys, consisting of concrete steps from conflict to communication, from hatred to love, and from escape to encounter. A patient journey, day after day, leads us to the land God has prepared for us. In this land, when people ask "Who are you?", you can easily answer: "Look, I am your brother and your sister. Don't you know me?" Then, walk calmly Your way.

When I listened to you and saw your face, I remembered another thing: your pain. You are here, but how many of your brothers and sisters are still on the journey? How many desperate people set out amidst difficulties and obstacles, but did not arrive? We can think about this sea, it has become a huge cemetery. Looking at you, I saw the pain of your journey; I saw all those who were kidnapped, sold, exploited... They are still on the journey, we don't know where. We are talking about slavery, general slavery. We see what is happening, and the worst part is that we are used to it. "Oh yes, another ship capsized today... So many people lost their lives..." This "habit" of things is a serious illness, a very serious illness, without antibiotics! We must resist this habit of reading these tragedies in newspapers or hearing them in other media.

Looking at you, I also think of those people who had to return because they were turned away. They ended up in concentration camps, real concentration camps, women were sold, men tortured and enslaved... When we read, we Shocked by the stories of the concentration camps of the last century, the stories of Nazis or Stalin, we said: "How could this happen?" Brothers and sisters, it happened on the nearby coast today! Land of slavery. I have seen some video testimonies about this: places of torture and human trafficking. I say all this because I have a responsibility to help people open their eyes to this reality. Compulsory immigration is not a kind of "tourism"! Our sins make us think: "Those poor people, those poor people!" With these words, "Poor people", we erased everything. This is today's war: the suffering of our brothers and sisters, we cannot remain silent. The brothers and sisters left everything on board, in the dark night, and... I don't know if they will arrive. And all those who were turned away and ended up in concentration camps, where they were truly tortured and enslaved.

This is the story of what we call the developed civilization of the West. Then-please forgive me, but here I want to say what I think, at least so that we can pray for each other and do something-then the barbed wire. What we see here: This is part of a war of hatred to divide a country. However, in other places, barbed wire fences are set up to prevent refugees from entering, those who seek freedom, food, assistance, fraternity, and joy, those who escape from hatred but find themselves facing a kind of hatred called barbed wire. May the Lord awaken the conscience of all of us before these realities.

Sorry, if what I said is the truth of the matter, but we cannot remain silent and turn a blind eye in this indifferent culture.

May the Lord bless you all! thank you.

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