The deep blue sea, bathed in sunlight, silhouettes the Camargue cross. The monument was installed in the shadow of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde, on the heights of Marseille, in honor of sailors and migrants who died at sea. Failing to have helped save them, it seems to watch over the immense expanse. Surrounded by Marseille leaders of all religions and public figures involved in helping refugees, Francis chose this memorial to give the most striking speech of his first day in Marseille on Friday, September 22. He focused on one of the issues that has been closest to his heart since the beginning of his pontificate: the question of migration. "Faced with such a drama, we need deeds, not words," he insisted, believing that Europe and humanity are at "a crossroads of civilizations" in the face of a tragedy "which bloodies the Mediterranean."

On his visit to Marseille, a multicultural city with a history marked by different waves of immigration, the Pope had planned to focus on the issue of refugees. From Lampedusa, in Italy, to Lesbos, in Greece, and today in Marseille, France, the head of the Catholic Church never fails to thunder against what he calls "a reality of our times" − capturing the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe that has been unfolding in the Mediterranean over the past decade.

On the plane to Marseille, the pontiff said: "I hope I'll have the courage to say everything I want to say." It was like a warning of the power of the speech he was to deliver a few hours later − undoubtedly the strongest since the speech he made during his visit to a migrant camp on the island of Lesbos in 2021.

In front of the sea, the scene of tragedies that have been repeated time and again over the last ten years, he paid a heartfelt tribute to those who regularly die trying to reach Europe in the hope of a better life. But above all, he called on the Old Continent to take collective action in response to a "duty of humanity."

On Friday, his words were strong. "We are gathered in memory of those who did not make it, who were not saved," a visibly moved Francis immediately stated. "Let us not get used to considering shipwrecks as news stories, and deaths at sea as numbers." "No!" he thundered.
"They are names and surnames, they are faces and stories, they are broken lives and shattered dreams."

Calling on those present to observe a minute's silence, Francis regretted that "this beautiful sea" had become "a huge cemetery, where many brothers and sisters are deprived even of the right to a grave. Being buried at sea is the only dignity given them."

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