Pope Francis in Trieste: welcoming and integrating migrants

Matthew Neugebauer

Saturday, July 6, 2024

Pope Francis waving in front of a historic building topped by the Italian flag.

Pope Francis will visit Trieste on July 7, 2024 to address the 50th Italian Catholic Social Week.

On Sunday, July 7, Pope Francis will make a pastoral visit to the city of Trieste in northeastern Italy. He'll give an address and preside over the concluding Mass for the 50th Italian Catholic Social Week, an annual gathering of the cross-section of the Italian Catholic world that focuses on social, political, environmental, and economic issues in pursuit of the common good. This year, the conference will discuss both ideas and practices that "promote the participation of citizens in democratic life."

Trieste's location points to a secondary, related theme for this year's conference. As local bishop Enrico Trevisi said at the press conference introducing the visit and quoted by Vatican News, "participation...the common good…[and] the maturity of a democracy also depend on how vulnerable people [such as migrants] are welcomed and integrated." Trieste is nestled on a gulf on the east side of the Adriatic, opposite the long Italian coastline that forms the Adriatic Sea’s west bank. The city is practically on the Slovenian border, and much closer to its capital, Ljubljana, as well as Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, than it is to Rome. Bishop Trevisi pointed out that Trieste has therefore served as a gateway city to the flow of migrants and refugees fleeing conflict and hardship in the Balkans and beyond.

Pope Francis has consistently highlighted the responsibility of wealthier countries to welcome migrants and provide them with safety and security. He memorably began his pontificate at Lampedusa, where he sounded an alarm to the dangers and struggles of those fleeing Africa's northern coast and crossing the Mediterranean. Every week, thousands of refugees are willing to risk these dangers rather than remain in situations of conflict, war, and poverty. In his social encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis critiqued countries and societies in which “migrants are not seen as entitled like others to participate in the life of society, and it is forgotten that they possess the same intrinsic dignity as any person” (#39).

In his 2023 Apostolic Visit to Hungary, he carried forward this theme of supporting migrants by carefully seeking to balance the summons to welcome and integrate refugees with the desire of host countries to preserve their historic national identities. He appealed to Hungary's and Europe's heritage as a community centred on "the importance of a unity that is not the same as uniformity....The Europe of the 27 [member states], built to create bridges between nations, requires the contribution of all, while not diminishing the uniqueness of each.” He then urged Hungary to model that mutual contribution within its borders by welcoming migrants, refugees, and others: “That is the unity we need: the harmony of a whole whose parts are not blandly homogenized, but fully integrated."

What might Pope Francis say in Trieste?

Between Lampedusa, Budapest, a Social Encyclical, and everywhere in-between, Pope Francis has maintained that generously welcoming migrants and refugees is a moral imperative, a Christian virtue, and important to developing the human family and flourishing societies. At the same time, he wants to maintain some influence with leaders and electorates who are skeptical of more open refugee and immigration policies. His ability to maintain that influence requires him to communicate that he takes their perspectives seriously.

Perhaps these leaders and countries are concerned about limited material resources, a possible surge in homelessness, and the need to shore up the wealth and talent of current citizens. As Pope Francis himself implied in Budapest, perhaps they are worried about a loss of national identity, a weakening of ties to the history and heritage of their people, brought on by a sudden wave of migrants from a different place with a different heritage. He understands the need to be sensitive to these concerns, even if he doesn’t see them as reasons for tighter borders, and even if he sees them as rooted in fear as much as in responsibility and a sense of community. He likely hopes that extending a hand in dialogue will ensure that more populist and nationalist leaders will continue to take his appeals seriously, rather than dismiss them as otherworldly or unrealistic.

Pope Francis has regained an amicable and respectful relationship with Javier Milei, the populist president of his native Argentina, despite the uncouth language about the pope that Milei used during his election campaign. This restored connection suggests that Pope Francis’ strategy of dialogue is starting to pay off. However, in other parts of the world in 2024, his balance between a call to welcome migrants while engaging with countries moving in a more restrictive direction has become a thinner tightrope, as more isolationist movements are on the rise. The recent elections for the EU Parliament tipped the scales decisively toward more nationalist parties, as did the first round of legislative elections in France last week. In the United States, Donald Trump is in the lead to return to the White House in November, partly thanks to his nationalist and protectionist policies.

In his 2023 Message for the 109th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Francis followed John Paul II and Benedict XVI in taking a both-and approach: “freedom…should always mark the decision to leave one’s native land,” rather than being forced to move by conflict or poverty. The theme for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees that year put it succinctly: “Free to choose whether to migrate or stay.”

In his Message, which also echoes his own comment in Fratelli Tutti #38, the Holy Father emphasized the “freedom to stay”: “Joint efforts are needed by individual countries and the international community to ensure that all enjoy the right not to be forced to emigrate, in other words, the chance to live in peace and with dignity in one's own country.”

In more concrete terms, the argument goes like this: if wealthier countries want to preserve their historic identities by tightening their immigration requirements and refugee allowances, then they are encouraged to make it easier for migrants to stay in poorer countries by fostering “peace and dignity” in those countries through active peacebuilding and economic development.

In the "theme-within-the-theme" of the 50th Italian Catholic Social Week, it looks like Pope Francis will turn to the same emphasis as his Visit to Hungary, on the “freedom to migrate." He might appeal to host countries to open their borders and their societies, thereby encouraging migrants and refugees to seek a new home. In making this appeal, he will likely highlight the benefits to a host country that can come with integrating migrants as full participants in its political life. As he wrote in Fratelli Tutti, “an individual and a people are only fruitful and productive if they are able to develop a creative openness to others” (#41).

Migrants can possess new and under-appreciated talents, skills, and perspectives, and can broaden the horizons and deepen the talents of current citizens by exposing them to these new perspectives. Migrants may well be grateful to their host country for a second chance at life and the opportunity to raise their families in safety. At the same time, they may face linguistic, cultural, economic, and personal (such as mental health and relational) obstacles to integrating into local society, and some migrants are unable to overcome those barriers.

This secondary theme presses the question to leaders of wealthier countries on precisely this point: do these challenges to integration stem from an unwillingness or inability on the part of migrants to contribute to the political community of their host country, or can host countries make greater efforts to encourage their integration and participation? More importantly, should they undertake that effort? Will it be worthwhile, serving to improve the vitality and sustainability of the local society and the human family as a whole?

Pope Francis, whose ministry as the successor of St. Peter has been marked by a "culture of encounter" in the face of a "globalization of indifference" and a “throwaway culture,” would kindly and gently assert that Italy, Europe, and the developed world can indeed make a worthwhile effort to help migrants integrate.

Salt + Light TV will broadcast the Eucharistic Concelebration from Trieste on Sunday at 12:00 pm ET and in French at 2:30 pm ET. Pope Francis will likely raise some of these themes in his homily at that Mass. His Address to the conference will be shown live on Vatican Media’s YouTube channel at 2:30 am ET.