Welcome migrants with the compassion of the Good Samaritan, Pope preaches on Lampedusa
July 04, 2026
Pope Leo XIV made a brief pastoral visit to Lampedusa today (program, video) and called upon the faithful to welcome migrants with the compassion of the Good Samaritan.
Lampedusa, an Italian island where thousands of migrants arrive each month, was the site of the first pastoral visit of Pope Francis’s pontificate in 2013—a visit that Pope Leo recalled as he celebrated Holy Mass at a sports field (video).
“God always loves us first,” Pope Leo began. “The beauty of the sea, this island and your faces is a reflection of his gratuitous initiative: love precedes us, surrounds us and brings us together. I am grateful to the Lord for the opportunity to visit you, following in the footsteps of Pope Francis.”
“The parable of the Good Samaritan, which we just heard, describes a story that continues to speak to us,” Pope Leo continued. “Here you have seen not just one, but thousands of human beings fallen into the hands of robbers who have taken everything from them, beat them brutally and walked away, leaving them half-dead.”
As he thanked the island’s residents for their compassion to migrants, the Pope said:
The parable tells us that love is always rooted in freedom, and freedom lies in the decisions we make. There are also those who choose not to be a neighbor and those who choose not to make a decision. Those who have lost their lives in this sea are victims both of decisions that were made and of decisions that were not made.
Indifference to the common good and corruption in their countries of origin; a global economic system that generates poverty and exclusion; fear that fuels prejudice and contempt; the belief that such problems do not concern us; the criminal calculations of those who profit from the suffering of others; the slow and difficult transition from mere emergency management to the development of comprehensive and shared policies—all are present-day echoes of the haste to “pass by” (vv. 31-32) in the Gospel narrative.
“It is time to recognize and affirm that religious affiliation must never become a reason for discrimination, as if faith had boundaries rather than being a universal call to salvation,” Pope Leo added. “There is no love of God without love of neighbor, and there is no neighbor if I do not draw near. To pause, to be moved, to bend down, to weep before another’s pain—as Jesus did—means entering into the dynamic of love, the very movement in which God has revealed himself.”
Referring also to the nearby island of Linosa, the Pontiff concluded:
Here, next to the altar, we have the image of Our Lady of Safe Harbor, the patroness of Lampedusa. Perhaps you know that Saint Augustine liked to describe human life as a voyage across a stormy sea and one’s destiny as a safe and secure harbor. Let us not be overcome by fear, but rather look upon daily hardships as a time of opportunity and witness.
May your faith, dear friends, be strengthened by these years of trial and generous commitment. May this venerated image speak to you once again with the same power as in days past, when those who handed down this devotion entrusted themselves to the Virgin’s intercession with radical sincerity. In God we all have a safe haven, and every Christian community is called to be a reflection of it on earth. And to you, the communities of Lampedusa and Linosa, may you never lack the breath of faith, hope and charity: “O’scià!” [a traditional greeting of the people of Lampedusa]
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