Pope deplores another migrant tragedy
CNS PHOTO | ANTONIO PARRINELLO, REUTERS
Body bags containing African migrants, who drowned trying to reach Italian shores, lie in a hangar of the Lampedusa airport in Italy Oct. 3.
The Cold War has ended and the Berlin Wall has fallen, but war and the threat of war continue and migrants are still dying as they travel in search of safety and a better life, Pope Francis said.
Addressing a conference marking the 50th anniversary of Blessed John XXIII's encyclical Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), Pope Francis asked whether "'justice' and 'solidarity' are just words in our dictionary or do we all work to make them a reality?"
The world still has far to go, he said Oct. 3, as he offered prayers for an estimated 500 migrants whose boat from Africa sank off the Italian coast.
The tragedy, which the pope described as "a disgrace," took place off the island of Lampedusa, which Pope Francis had visited July 8 after similar tragedies.
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