Although short, the trip to the island in the central part of the Mediterranean Sea was particularly exhausting for the 85-year-old pope, who suffers from pain in his right knee due to a ligament problem.
Several times today he showed difficulty getting up from his chair, and his limp due to sciatica was at times so pronounced that he had to take the arm of an assistant to be able to walk.
Francis began his last day in Malta with a visit to the grotto where, according to tradition, Saint Paul, one of the 12 apostles or companions of Jesus, lived after being shipwrecked in Malta in the year 60.
According to the biblical account of the episode, the Maltese welcomed him generously, and the Apostle responded by preaching and healing the sick and Christianizing the islanders.
From the very beginning of your visit, yesterday, Francis repeatedly urged Europe to show the same solidarity with migrants and refugees that Malta has shown with Saint Paul.
The pontiff, who has advocated hundreds of times for refugees during his papacy, which began in 2013, extended the message on this occasion to thank the European countries that welcomed Ukrainian refugees after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Nobody knew their names, their place of birth or their social status; they knew only one thing: that these were people who needed help”Francis said when visiting the grotto in the town of Rabat.
“Help us to recognize from afar those who need help, fighting among the waves of the sea, thrown against reefs of unknown shores”he added, the Europa Press news agency reported.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has overshadowed the pope’s first trip to Malta, a majority Catholic country, which had been delayed two years by the coronavirus.
Malta, with some 500,000 inhabitants, is on the front line of the route from North Africa to Europe, and thousands of people who risk crossing in overcrowded boats end up here.
But several organizations accuse the small member country of the European Union (EU) of not helping people who reach its waters, and the pope yesterday reminded the archipelago of its “safe harbor” status.
After the visit to the grotto, the Pope went to Floriana, near the capital, Valletta, where he celebrated a mass for some 20,000 people in which he once again called for an end to the war in Ukraine.
“Thinking about the humanitarian tragedy of the tormented Ukraine, still under the bombardment of this sacrilegious war, let us not tire of praying and helping those who suffer”he said in the homily.
Francis yesterday condemned the invasion of Ukraine and spoke of “some powerful person, sadly locked in the anachronistic pretensions of nationalist interests, who provokes and foments conflicts”, in what seemed to be an allusion to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Asked by a journalist about a possible trip to kyiv, he said that a visit to the Ukrainian capital was “on the table”.
The war has caused the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.
An issue that Francis has addressed on numerous occasions since his arrival in the papacy nine years ago, insisting on the need to welcome those fleeing war, poverty or the effects of climate change.
At his mass in Floriana, the Pope also criticized those who only “they denounce the sins” and those who point “with the finger”, and asked to put into practice an attitude of listening.
The pontiff attacked those “who set themselves up as champions of God, but trample on their brothers” and against those who go out “in search of sinners” while asking the Church to be a “witness of reconciliation” in society.
The religious event has recalled, due to its influx, the acts prior to the pandemic.
In any case, the square where the mass was held had capacity for 80,000 but it was reduced to a room, and the assistants had to remain seated.
“He who believes that he defends the faith by pointing his finger at others will even have a religious vision, but he does not embrace the spirit of the Gospel, because he forgets mercy, that “We will not point fingers again, but we will begin to listens to her We will not discard the despised, but we will look first at those who are considered last,” he said.
Source: Ambito
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