... as recently as a few days ago up to 1000 people were arriving every night. On the island there are five thousand Tunisians, almost more than the number of parishioners who are six thousand. There was no time to waste, with the assistant pastor we opened rooms in the parish and housed them. We then asked the Ministry to re-open immediately the welcome centre and they also began sending people to other parts of Sicily and southern Italy with special flights. Then we were able to breathe a bit.He points out that the welcome centre at Lampedusa has been empty in recent years due to a "politic of rejection." In 2009 Italy made international headlines after returning 227 Libyans to Tripoli after they were picked up by Italian vessels just off the coast of that country. The 227 people were not given a chance to claim refugee status as they never actually arrived in Italy. Just this month the Tunisian government voiced it's dismay with Italy after the Italian government proposed to deploy police to that nation to help stop the flow of people leaving Tunisia by boat for Europe. Fr. Natasi explains that these immigrants arriving illegally by boat have nothing left. They come to Italy, Malta and Spain seeking a better life and freedom. He told La Bussola most of the refugees he met were young men in their 20s and 30s. With the unrest in their homeland they lost their jobs and were forced to flee for their lives. Yet the Italian media, said Fr. Natasi, often showed images of hundreds and hundreds of refugees arriving on Sicilian shores, causing great alarm among citizens who believe the new arrivals are criminals who will put locals at risk. However, little by little Fr. Natasi manages to change the way these refugees are perceived. He has managed to build up a group of collaborators, parishioners, who work together to welcome the refugees who land at Lampedusa. That direct contact has shown local residents that these “boat people” are really just young men with hopes and dreams, trying to change their lives in the only way open to them. - Mourners carry coffins containing the bodies of Libyans who were killed in the recent clashes in Benghazi (CNS photo/Suhaib Salem, Reuters)
2025年2月19日上午,聖座新聞室在週三早上在記者會中分享道:「教宗渡過了一個安寧的夜晚,起床後吃了早餐。」此前,聖座新聞室在週二晚上聲明表示教宗感染雙側肺炎。
耶路撒冷的宗主教及各基督宗教領袖:「願仁慈的上主堅固受苦的人,軟化掌權者的心,帶來維護正義、維護人類尊嚴的和平,並保障所有人在屬於他們的土地上的存在。」
2025年2月18日,星期二下午,聖座新聞室在新聞稿中表示,教宗方濟各患有雙側肺炎,但精神仍然良好。
2025年2月14日,聖座新聞室表示,教宗方濟各今天上午在聖瑪爾大之家進行幾場接見活動後,在羅馬傑梅利醫院住院,為他已感染數日的支氣管炎「進行必要的診斷檢查,並在醫院環境裡繼續接受治療」。
2025年2月14日,天主教會臺灣地區主教團發布官方由原文意大利文翻譯成中文的「教宗方濟各第十六屆世界主教代表會議常務大會 以共融、參與及使命來體現共議性的教會 《最終文件》」,歡迎大家下載。