“We help them, they save us,” in the tragic daily story of migrants asking for help in the Central Mediterranean the presence of a young priest on board a ship of a civil society association translates as the Gospel teaches in “visceral compassion”. It is the ability to lend a hand to the shipwrecked that society often forgets, the giving of oneself entirely to the other that characterizes the path of Don Mattia Ferrari30 years old, chaplain of the humanitarian platform Mediterranea Saving Humans.
In the book Saved by migrants, tale of a lifestyle (Edb editions, 2024) is him telling his story. From his childhood in Formigene, in the province of Modena, with a family that introduces him to Jesus to his daily encounters with those who risk their lives at sea in search of a better future. Pope Francis wrote the presentationthe afterword is by Marco Damilano.
The strong warning returns, the often unheard cry, of the first apostolic journey of the Pontiff to Lampedusa, in July 2013: “Where is your brother? The voice of his blood cries out to me, says God. This is not a question addressed to others, it is a question addressed to me, to you, to each of us”, Pope Francis continues, reiterating that «help and welcome are not only essential humanitarian gestures, they are gestures that give flesh to brotherhood, that build civilization». Here then is the visceral compassion, the one that Don Mattia together with the crew of Mediterranea and all the other civil rescue ships experience and live every single day at sea.
The work of NGOs indicates a concrete path to earthly salvation. It is always Pope Francis who says it to the entire world and to a single Christian community: «I have publicly expressed my gratitude several times to Mediterranea Saving Humans and to all the organizations that provide rescue and reception. The Church accompanies this journey, because the Gospel demands it: the Church has no alternatives, if it does not follow Jesus, if it does not love as Jesus loves, it loses the very meaning of its being. Giving flesh to universal brotherhood is the dream that God has entrusted to us since the beginning of creation: whoever participates in this mission collaborates in God’s dream”.
And so Don Mattia lives the experience of Christ in the encounter with the shipwrecked, but helps others to live it too, navigators, operators, cultural mediators, regardless of whether they believe or not. It is the secret of a universal brotherhood of those who have shared a choice, like the one that in the summer of 2018 marked the path of the young Don Mattia who at that time had just been ordained a priest, appointed assistant priest of Nonantola and diocesan assistant of the Catholic Action for children. Don Mattia is a friend of two social centers in Bologna, Tpo and Labas, who were among the founders of Mediterranea with Luca Casarini and Beppe Caccia. The dream is about to come true and the bishops are authorizing the civil society association to have a chaplain on board. «In a certain sense, therefore, if I got on the Mare Jonio, it is all the ‘fault’ of the migrants. It is their ‘fault’ if in my life I have lived experiences that have made me experience so much the joy of the Gospel.”
You have no choice. Either you are with migrants and those who save human lives at sea or you are not with Jesus. “The Church has no alternatives, this is its identity because it is the position of Jesus. Whoever takes it out on NGOs is taking it out on Jesus, he is the instigator”, Don Mattia tells Christian Family. The encounter with the migrant brother is always a discovery. Scrolling through the pages you come across the story of Pato, Matyla’s husband and Marie’s father. The mother and daughter who died embracing in the desert whose photo went around the world. Pato supported by Refugees in Libya and Mediterranea told his story in front of the Pope.
The dialogue between Don Mattia and Pope Francis is continuous: “I can’t say how many times we hear from each other,” but it is certainly the example of the chaplain of Mediterranea that shows the way to a Church called to break down every border. With acts of disobedience if necessary, with the firmness to say things as they are, as when Don Mattia addresses the relationship between Europe, Italy and the Libyan mafia. «In fact, on the one hand you cannot fight the ‘Ndrangheta, Cosa Nostra and the Camorra and on the other maintain relationships, agreements and even finance foreign mafias like the Libyan one». Agreements that result in loss of human life. In recent weeks, there have been two shipwrecks off the coast of Lampedusa, with over 40 dead or missing, including children.