The pontiff will advocate for a humanitarian reception of migrants and for dialogue between the different churches. His trip also includes Greece.
Pope Francis arrived in Cyprus this Thursday, the first stage of a five-day trip that will also include Greece, countries in which he will advocate for a humanitarian reception of migrants and for dialogue between the different churches.
This is the second visit of a pope to Cyprus, an island populated especially by Orthodox Christians, after the one made by Benedict XVI in 2010.
The 84-year-old Argentine pontiff’s plane landed at 2:52 p.m. local time at Larnaca airport, in southern Cyprus.
During the trip, one of the journalists accompanying him gave him framed pieces of cloth from the tents used by migrants in Calais (northern France), where many are waiting to cross the English Channel and reach the United Kingdom . “It’s terrible,” the pontiff replied, visibly moved.
Francisco “goes above all to the most vulnerable and the most marginalized. Today, those people are the migrants who have been forced to leave their countries in the midst of pain and illegality, ”said the Archbishop of Cyprus for the Maronites, Selim Sfeir.
According to the Cypriot Government, they are carrying out negotiations with the Vatican to transfer several migrant families to Italy, as happened in 2016 during his first visit to the Greek island of Lesbos, when he brought three Syrian families to Rome.
The Cypriot authorities say they receive the highest number of asylum applications from the European Union compared to their population.
They estimate that some 10,000 migrants arrived in an irregular situation during the first ten months of the year.
Meanwhile, upon the pope’s arrival at the airport, the Cypriot authorities welcomed him with a music band and the red carpet spread out under a blazing sun.
“Welcome to Cyprus”, “we love you, Pope Francis”, sang a group of children, one of them carrying a Lebanese flag. “Pray for Lebanon,” they shouted.
The high pontiff went right after to the Maronite Cathedral of Our Lady of Grace, in Nicosia, where he met with the patriarch of this Eastern Catholic Church (which represents less than 1% of the Cypriot population, but is present in Syria and Lebanon), Cardinal Béchara Rai.
Francis will deliver two speeches in Nicosia, divided since 1974 between the Republic of Cyprus, a member of the European Union, and the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), recognized only by Turkey.
“With your help, things can happen, it is our hope,” said Moncia Despoti, a 55-year-old Maronite who was waiting for the pope to arrive.
“The center of the world is today in Cyprus, we hope that will help (…) with the political problem,” added Franciscan sister Antonia Piripitsi.
‘Approach wounded humanity’
On Friday, the pope will celebrate in Nicosia a mass in a stadium, in front of 7,000 faithful, and an ecumenical prayer with the migrants, near the “green line”, the demilitarized zone administered by the UN that divides the city and the island into two parts, a gesture considered particularly symbolic.
The mass will be the only event in which the Catholic community of Cyprus will participate, made up of some 25,000 people (between 5,000 and 7,000 Maronites), out of a population of one million, the majority of whom are Orthodox.
“It will be a trip to the sources of apostolic faith and brotherhood among Christians of various denominations,” the pope announced at Wednesday’s general audience. With this, Francisco has made 35 trips abroad, since his election in 2013.
Dialogue with the Orthodox, who separated from the Catholic Church in 1054 during the great schism between East and West, It is one of the priorities of the pontificate of Francis.
Jerzy Kraj, Archbishop of the Church of the Holy Cross, which belongs to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, declared to AFP that this trip to Cyprus and Greece will be permeated with a message of “open dialogue”.
It will also be the occasion to “get closer to wounded humanity” and so many migrants who are looking for hope, “the pope said Wednesday. (I)
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