Pope appeals for survivors of migrant disasters
(ANSA) – Rome, November 1 – Pope Francis prayed for the victims of a series of recent migrant disasters and made an appeal for the survivors Friday during an All Saints Day Mass at Rome’s Verano cemetery.
Around 400 people died in two migrant boat disasters near the Sicilian island of Lampedusa last month and this week Niger said the bodies of 92 migrants, mostly women and children, had been found in the Sahara desert.
“I’d like to pray in a special way for these brothers and sisters of ours who in recent days died while seeking a liberation, a more dignified life,” the pope told thousands of faithful.
“We have seen the photographs, the cruelty of the desert, we have seen the sea where so many drowned. “Let’s pray for them. And let’s also pray for those who survived, who at the moment are in many reception centres, heaped together, hoping that the legal procedures accelerate so they can go somewhere else, more comfortable, in other reception centres”.