L’Osservatore Romano sees ‘shipwreck of civilization’ in ‘fear of foreigners, fueled by populism’

September 04, 2025

Recalling the tenth anniversary of the death of Alan Kurdi, a two-year-old Syrian refugee, the Vatican newspaper’s deputy editor lamented the “fear of foreigners, fueled by populism,” that “has once again dictated the political agenda.”

In a front-page article entitled “In quella foto il naufragio della civiltà“ [In that photo, the shipwreck of civilization], Gaetano Vallini wrote that “there are images so powerful that they stay with you, as if engraved in your mind and heart .

“By publishing that photo, it was hoped that consciences accustomed to the constant news of shipwrecks with dead and missing would be shaken,” Vallini continued. “And that this shock would also reach those responsible for managing the migration phenomenon, so that, in a surge of humanity, they would set aside the propaganda manipulations and act to stop the massacres.”

Vallini added:

And in the immediate aftermath, something did indeed move. But it was short-lived. “Fortress Europe” soon closed its doors again, raising new walls ...

Ten years later, we look again at that heartbreaking photo of Alan. Our hearts still ache, and if possible, it hurts even more. Because we are now disillusioned. His death has changed nothing. Emotion, dismay, and indignation have not transformed into a movement capable of influencing politics. The restrictions, however, have not stopped departures toward Europe and the tragedies. Since 2014, over 30,000 people have died in the Mare Nostrum [“Our Sea,” the Mediterranean], many of them minors.

The “fear of foreigners, fueled by populism, has once again dictated the political agenda,” Vallini concluded. “Thus, Alan’s photo, once a symbol of the Mediterranean tragedies that should have been avoided, has now become an icon of failure. It reminds us of the shameful shipwreck of our civilization.”

 

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Further information:

• In quella foto il naufragio della civiltà (L'Osservatore Romano, 9/3/25)