“As always, I welcome these words with great gratitude and I subscribe to them word for word.” Don Mattia Ferrarithe thirty-year-old priest originally from Modena, chaplain of theMediterranean Association Saving Humansis comforted by the words of Pope Francis in the general audience of August 28 in support of migrants and those who help them. “We thank the Pope very much,” continues Don Mattia, “for his courage and we can guarantee that we will always continue with even greater commitment and determination because for us it is a mission of love, it is about saving lives and people. It is about giving flesh to fraternity and to the Gospel”.
Don Mattia is enjoying a few days of rest at the campsite after the eighteenth mission of Mediterranea, but assures that “we are working to be operational again as soon as possible. As always, we work together with the migrant networks in Libya to do everything we can, both for migrants who are at sea and for those who are in the desert”.
What were the stages of your 18th mission?
“We left from Trapani, we went down to international waters and already after Lampedusa we had the first reports. We conducted three different operations. In the first we distributed life jackets to the migrants, then the Coast Guard loaded them. In the second operation we took them on board and the Coast Guard transferred them. In the third we took them on board and they assigned Pozzallo to us as a safe port of disembarkation”.
How many people have you rescued in total and what countries are they from?
“We have rescued 182 people in collaboration with the Coast Guard. Most of them were from Ethiopia and Syria, but there were also people from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sudan.”
In this mission, the ship “Mar Jonio” was accompanied for three days by the sailing boat promoted by the Fondazione Migrantes di Fano-Fossombrone-Cagli-Pergola, which wanted to collect data and information on the monitoring, search and rescue of migrants in the Mediterranean, and also document in this way the effectiveness of what is being done. How did this collaboration go?
“It was a further step in Mediterranea’s journey with the Church, a journey that began some time ago, as demonstrated by my presence, for five years, as chaplain of Mediterranea. There will be other steps in this journey.”
Some press has spoken contemptuously of the “bishops’ boat”, what do you say in response?
“I don’t think there is any need to reply. It is not pleasant to respond to certain accusations. We do not act against anyone, ours is a mission of love and not of hate, we pray for the conversion of those who do not understand.”
