Francesco who gives his hand to refugees in a row on the street. While the threshold of the Astalli center crosses. In the rooms where men and women run away from their countries, among the volunteers of the canteen and the clinic. And then in prayer, in the chapel of the center, under the icon of escape to Egypt, painted by an Ethiopian refugee. «There are many photos we have here, in the premises of Astalli. Pope Francis came to visit us on 10 September 2013, a few months after his election. And in these days many refugees, mainly Muslims, who have known about hospitalization, stop in front of those photos, as a sign of respect and silent accompaniment for this person who is present for them, a street companion ». Father Camillo Ripamonti, born in 1970, originally from Usmate Velate, in Brianza, since 2014 is the president of the Astalli center, the Italian headquarters of the Jesuit service for refugees. The confrere, Jesuit and Pope, immediately demonstrated a special attention for refugees and migrants. «Francesco’s distinctive figure has always been the contact and encounter with people. The thing I remember in particular of that visit in 2013 is his wanting to give his hand to all those who were in line, in a meeting that returned dignity. Since that day he has always shown a great closeness to refugees and the Astalli center. When the Matteo Ricci center was inaugurated, for the welcome of women or with children, he gave us a crucifix of Lampedusa, a copy of the one in front of which he had prayed during the visit to the island. Then in 2015 he made a video message on the occasion of the presentation of the annual report and on several occasions the refugees of the center met him in the Vatican. He has always shown attention to them and above all this desire to meet them, to listen to their stories. For him they are never numbers, but people to whom the dignity of humans and with whom to make a direct encounter must be recognized. “
She is also Jesuit. How is Francesco’s illness of these days?
«Like all Christians, there is apprehension for his health. He has always asked for prayer, on any occasion, and in these difficult days he becomes more present ».
What is the heart of the Pope’s magisterium on refugees?
«In the fact that he tried to rehabilitate refugees from numbers to people, putting them in the center in his meetings also in all his trips he almost always met them. In his magisterium, attention is on the existential suburbs, his first journey was in Lampedusa, in an periphery where many refugees in an attempt to arrive safe in Europe lose their lives. On that occasion he spoke for the first time of the “globalization of indifference”. And in his magisterium the words he always uses are “protecting, defending, promoting and integrating”, to say the need for an accompaniment of refugee people in the various stages of their path. In short, a attention, so that they are even in a Europe companions that forget them or remember them only in instrumental terms because they are useful in the labor market. One of the things he has always remembered is the right not to leave. We must not forget that people do not leave their home for pleasure, but because they are forced to leave it. Hence the right not to start, to be able to live in their land without wars, without being victims of climate change, without violence and injustice. The right to continue living where you were born without being forced to leave your land. Francesco fits into attention to migrants that the Church has always had, let’s not forget that the day of migrants was one of the first days that the Church celebrated, at the beginning of the twentieth century “.
And that today is at the center of the magisterium of this Pope …
«In the world, refugees are now more than 120 million, are UNHCR data. Numbers that cannot be underestimated, continuously, so the situation of migrants and refugees certainly is a central question that concerns us all. And Francesco has a forward -looking look towards the future: this theme must be addressed by the whole community by making migrants and refugees are welcomed so that social peace is guaranteed and maintained. It is essential to be the attention of the whole society, also of the Christian community, because a future reconciled for everyone, a future in peace, a future in which everyone feels welcomed is possible “.
