The story of social threats a Don Mattia Ferrariship’s chaplain Mediterranea Saving Humansshe arrived at judgment. Was identified the account holder @rgowans on X, author of the attacks on the Modenese priest committed to defending the least and the gods migrants. After an international investigation the circle has closed. Don Mattia is the “priest of migrants”, but above all a man who has chosen to remain close to the least: in the sea, in the ports, in the outskirts of the heart. In the recent meeting with the Popular Movements, Pope Leo XIV relaunched Pope Francis’ appeal: “Land, home and work” are not concessions, but sacred rights. With strong words he denounced the indifference that transforms migrants into waste, the growing inequalities and the “collateral damage” of a technological progress that often forgets man. A call that affects everyone: the Church, politics, families. It is the same voice that invites us to return to the concrete Gospel of Saint Francis, a model of a brotherhood that excludes no one. We met Don Mattia to reflect on the Pope’s message, on the welcome that becomes hope and on the faith that is born from the encounter with those who no longer have anything, but carry a world inside them.
The author of the threats against him is been identified. How do you experience this story, as a priest and as a man?
«The beautiful thing is that it was not a solitary job, but the fruit of a network: lawyers, journalists, archivists and institutions collaborated to discover that behind the @rgowans account there was Robert Brytan, an IT manager linked to the Frontex environment. It was patient, collective work, and this gives hope. But the point isn’t me. The real drama is that of the migrants rejected and tortured in Libya, of the lives broken every day. I think of Quftu, the Ethiopian girl who died in Tripoli in the ninth month of pregnancy, after rape and violence. It is she who must remain in the heart. When we remain silent, when we turn our heads the other way, we become complicit in these tragedies.”
Pope Leo said that rejecting the poor is rejecting peace.
«It is a profoundly evangelical discourse. If the Church does not stand by the least, it loses meaning. Pope Leo recalled that God loves the poor and that the civilization of love can be reborn from them. It’s not rhetoric, it’s the Gospel of Luke: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God”.
The Pope reiterated that “land, home and work” are sacred rights.
«We have been working for years, with popular movements, to defend these three rights linked to the dignity of the person. The Church must not replace but accompany those who defend them, not as an observer but as a mother and sister. Pope Francis taught us to build an economy “with and for the poor”, in which the excluded become protagonists. We need a global alliance against exclusion.”
The Pontiff also called for responsibility in new technologies and social media languages.
«Yes, because behind every name there are faces. Propaganda, especially on social media, tends to erase people’s humanity. Pope Leo is right when he talks about “connection bulimia” and invites us to return to more honest, truer words.”
He spoke of migrants being treated like garbage. In your experience, what does this actually mean?
«It means rejecting them towards Libyan hell, it means ignoring them when they ask for help. But the responsibility is not only political: it is also ours, as a society and as believers. Every time we remain indifferent, we participate in that throwaway culture.”
You also coordinate the global platform of Popular Movements. How does the continuity between Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV live?
«The two Popes share a vision of an “outgoing” Church, which listens and accompanies. Popular movements are living proof of this synergy: men and women who transform faith into commitment, in the logic of service and not power.”
Pope Leo recalled that the humanity of migrants cannot be sacrificed in the name of security. How to reconcile hospitality and order?
«By accepting complexity, as Pope Francis said with the image of the polyhedron. Pastoral care must be able to keep differences together, welcome fragility, and always put the dignity of the person at the centre. Discernment is also needed in politics, but starting from these evangelical pillars.”
The Pope also denounced the plague of new drugs and addictions. What do you see up close?
«In Europe I see it less, but in poor countries it is a tragedy. Drug trafficking feeds on social exclusion. Popular movements also fight this: they save people by taking them by the hand. The opposite of drugs is brotherhood.”
Was the Global Sumud Flotilla a political act, an act of faith or humanity?
«All three things. It is a prophetic sign. There is a cry rising from the people: it is a cry for justice. We have to listen. Participating is one of the pillars of the social doctrine of the Church. Faith is not passivity, it is action.”
Is there a face or a story that changed you?
“Many. But I think of Pato, a man who lost his wife and daughter in the desert between Libya and Tunisia during a pushback. A symbol of suffering but also of faith and resilience of migrants. When I met him, I really understood what Pope Francis meant when he said that those who help the poor are “saved” by them.”
You recounted this experience in your book “Saved by Migrants” (Edb), with a preface by Pope Francis.
«Yes, it’s exactly like this: we help them, but they are the ones who save us. They free us from our fears, our prejudices, our mental prisons. It is the paradox of salvation reversed.”
Mediterranea brings together different worlds: Church, social centers, believers and non-believers. What keeps you together?
«The dignity of the human person, brotherhood, true friendship with the “discarded”. Those who experience these relationships discover that the other is not a problem but a gift. It is the experience that saves us every day, and that gives concrete meaning to the Gospel.”
