In the latest incident, hundreds are feared dead after a boat carrying an estimated 700 people capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Nearly 200,000 people have been rescued at sea by Italy since the start of 2014.

But the number of deaths of refugees in Mediterranean crossings has risen 50 times since Mare Nostrum, a broad search and rescue operation in international waters, was replaced by a more limited operation within 50 kilometres of the Italian coast.

Italy announced it was ending Mare Nostrum in November last year, after it proved to be unsustainable without further help from EU nations.

The EU's external borders agency, Frontex, implemented Operation Triton, with far fewer vessels, one-third of the budget and a smaller geographic scope.

The British government dropped its support for EU search-and-rescue operations because, it said, these would only "encourage" more migrants to attempt to cross.

Yet Save the Children pointed to the dramatic surge in numbers so far this month with 12,342 migrants arriving, up from 2,283 in the whole of March.

Speaking in Rome alongside Sergio Mattarella, Italy's President, the Pope said: "I express my gratitude for the commitment that Italy is making to welcome the many migrants who, risking their lives, ask to be taken in."

"It's evident that the proportions of the phenomenon require much broader involvement," the Pope said.

"We must never tire of appealing for a more extensive commitment on the European and international level."

At his Regina Caeli address on Sunday, Pope Francis mentioned the most recent loss of life, saying the victims were like us in their search for happiness.

"They are men and women like us, our brothers who seek a better life: hungry, persecuted, wounded, exploited, victims of war," the Pope said in off-the-cuff remarks.

"They were looking for happiness."

The emergency in the Mediterranean was to be discussed at an EU foreign ministers' meeting on April 20.

Sources

• The Independent
• Catholic News Agency
• Human Rights Watch
• Image: World Maritime News

In a letter to a meeting of the International Labour Conference, the Pope wrote that mass migration is a "grave issue".

Pope Francis called for a "concerted effort . . . to encourage governments to facilitate the movement of migrants for the benefit of all, thus eliminating human trafficking and perilous travel conditions".

Last month, there were two shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea of vessels carrying migrants from Africa.

The Libyan Government said it could not cope with numbers arriving at their borders from sub-Saharan African countries and would be forced to "facilitate" the movement of migrants to Europe.

But Italy, with its southern-most island of Lampedusa just 80 miles off the north African coast, is overwhelmed by migrants arriving at its shores.

It said that unless it receives more help with sea patrols, it would defy European Union rules obliging migrants to stay in the country where they land and allow them to travel further into Europe.

Some 40,000 people have made the crossing in recent months, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.

Hundreds of thousands more said to be awaiting a passage to Europe, in camps run by criminal gangs, on the coastline of Libya.

In his letter, Pope Francis said people in mass migrations often encounter "mistrust and exclusion" and often fail to find dignified work.

Echoing a phrase he used during a visit to Lampedusa last year, the Pope wrote that such people often fall victim to a "globalisation of indifference".

In his letter, the Pope also lamented that unemployment is "is tragically expanding the frontiers of poverty".

It is time, the Pope wrote, "to reinforce existing forms of cooperation and to establish new avenues for expanding solidarity".

Among measures he recommended were: "A re-evaluation of the responsibilities of international corporations in the countries where they operate, including the areas of profit and investment management".

Sources

• The Tablet
• Asia News
• Image: Catholic World Report

Yet the stir around Lampedusa is itself worth looking into. The pope said such tragedies are "shameful," but I would describe Europe's emotional state as one of embarrassment. The embarrassment relates to our reluctance to confront the hypocrisy embedded in how we think about immigrants from the poor and broken parts of the world. On the one hand, we have high moral standards about our duty of care to refugees fleeing lives of squalor, fear and oppression, and these are embedded in various international treaties and national laws. On the other hand, if we applied those standards generally, we would have to accept that over a billion people have some legitimate claim to refugee status.

Who are those billion? Most women in the Middle East and perhaps Central America; homosexuals from most of the world; many of the world's indigenous peoples; most inhabitants of failed states like Somalia and the Central African Republic; everyone but the elite in totalitarian dictatorships like Eritrea, North Korea and Uzbekistan; the 12 million people without citizenship of any state; religious and ethnic minorities in intolerant countries like Pakistan and Burma; all the civilians in war zones like Syria and Baghdad; India's untouchables; China's Tibetans; the vast number of refugees interned for decades in long-term camps in poor countries, like the Somalis living in Kenya or the ethnic Nepalis expelled by Bhutan - and so on. Continue reading

Sources

• ABC Religion & Ethics
• Image: World News Post

It's somewhat providential that the two stories have coincided, especially after a story was brought to my attention late last week about a possible correlation between the papacy and British royalty.

As I've written many times in the past four months or so, Pope Francis is a pretty beloved figure around the world, even by large portions of a mainstream media that is usually suspicious of — or even hostile towards — the Catholic Church, and in many cases with due cause.

But someone at CNN was thinking back to another figure in our not-too-distant past who was loved by the media and wondered "Is Pope Francis the Catholic Princess Diana?"

Eric Marrapodi was reflecting on Pope Francis's recent trip to Lampedusa in southern Italy, one of the closest parts of Europe to Africa and the hoped-for destination of many Africans trying to make a new life for themselves, often risking their lives in the pursuit of that dream. It reminded him of Princess Diana's efforts to cast a spotlight on humanitarian issues.

But watching Francis' first few months in office, it's hard not to notice that he seems to have taken a page from the late Princess Diana's playbook.

The Princess of Wales knew where she went, the media followed. Her activism brought global attention to homelessness, HIV/AIDs, and, most prominently, land mines. Continue reading

Sources

• Gavin Abraham, The Catholic Soapbox
• Image: CNN

Gavin Abraham, a journalist for more than a dozen years, has spent most of the last six years working in Catholic media.

In the past 18 months more than 500 people have died, or gone missing at sea, trying to escape Africa. The world barely noticed.

Standing on Lampedusa on Monday, Francis prayed for the victims and cast a wreath in the water to commemorate the dead. More importantly, he drew attention to the desperate plight of migrants, in his country and around the world.

"We have fallen into a globalization of indifference," Francis said, as he stood near an altar made from the salvage of shipwrecks.

The pope wore purple - a color that symbolizes penance in Catholicism - and prayed that world leaders who ignored the plight of migrants might be forgiven.

"The fact he wore purple and asking for forgiveness was very powerful," Christopher M. Bellitto a church historian and Associate Professor at Kean University said.

"This is a guy that socks you in the gut and touches your heart."

It was his first trip outside of Rome since Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was elected in March as the head of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide. And it showed how quickly he is learning to shine the megawatt spotlight of his popular papacy on issues dear to his heart.

There are obvious differences between a Catholic pontiff and a princess.

But watching Francis' first few months in office, it's hard not to notice that he seems to have taken a page from the late Princess Diana's playbook.

The Princess of Wales knew where she went, the media followed. Her activism brought global attention to homelessness, HIV/AIDs, and, most prominently, land mines.

Just as Diana ventured far from Buckingham Palace to wrap her arms around landmine victims in Africa and elsewhere, Pope Francis has taken the papacy out of the the Sistine Chapel and into the streets. Continue reading

Sources

• Eric Marrapodi in CNN Belief Blog
• Image: Spiegel Online

Eric Marrapodi is CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor.

The Pope said he decided to visit Lampedusa, a small island with a population of 6000 and just 70 miles from Tunisia, after seeing newspaper headlines in June describing the drowning of immigrants when a boat sank offshore.

The thought of the tragedy was "like a splinter in the heart that causes suffering", he said.

"I felt the duty to come here today to pray, to perform a gesture of closeness, but also to awaken our consciences so that what happened doesn't repeat itself."

After a flight from Rome, the Pope boarded a boat to arrive at the port of Lampedusa, pausing along the route to cast a floral wreath on the waters that have claimed the lives of thousands of migrants.

On arrival at the port he met a group of around 50 immigrants, many of them Muslims, living in reception shelters, and greeted them one by one.

Later, celebrating Mass at a soccer field, he remarked on the sad irony of "immigrants dying at sea, in boats which were vehicles of hope and became vehicles of death".

To emphasise that he was there to mourn the dead and to encourage everyone around the world to examine their consciences about how they directly or indirectly contribute to the problems of immigrants, Pope Francis wore the purple vestments of repentance and used the prayers from the Mass for the Forgiveness of Sins.

In his homily the Pope spoke about the failure of Christians to recognise refugees and migrants as their brothers.

He decried the "culture of comfort" that "makes us insensitive to the cries of other people, makes us live in soap bubbles which, however lovely, are insubstantial".

He said: "We have become used to the suffering of others, it doesn't affect me; it doesn't concern me; it is none of my business. The globalisation of indifference makes us all 'unnamed', responsible yet nameless and faceless."

Sources:

Catholic News Service

Vatican Radio

Vatican Information Service

Image: UCANews

Officially part of Sicilian territory, the isolated island of 5000 inhabitants is less than 115 kilometres from the coast of Tunisia, making it a beacon for asylum seekers fleeing the poverty and violence that has accompanied the Arab Spring.

Of the 7913 refugees who arrived on the Italian coast in the first six months of this year, 3648 landed on Lampedusa.

Numerous refugees have died at sea, Archbishop Francesco Montenegro of Agrigento, Sicily, told Vatican Radio, but "the number of deaths does not seem to be of interest because they have black skin".

Archbishop Montenegro paid tribute to the generosity of the island's residents, who have been "giving everything" to help the migrants, who often come with nothing on perilous, flimsy boats.

"[My people] have emptied cupboards, have provided showers, luncheons, goods, clothes," he said.

The prelate revealed that he invited Pope Francis to visit Lampedusa during his May 20 ad limina visit. "I saw the Pope paid close attention to the news I gave him, and I said it would be good if he wanted to come."

During his visit to the island, the Pope "will commit a wreath to the sea in memory of those who lost their lives in the shipwreck", the Vatican announced, before he meets with migrants, celebrates an outdoor Mass, and visits the island's parish.

"Immigration is not an ‘emergency'; we must have the courage to stop using this word: It is the way things are," Archbishop Montenegro said. "Today, 10 will arrive, 100 will arrive, 1000 will arrive; but the problem is not because they arrive in the thousands. The problem is also there if only 10 arrive, because they are 10 men who want to live."

Sources:

Vatican Radio

Vatican Insider

Image: English-Online