When in 2018 Pope Francis came to prepare for his imminent trip to Malta, the world situation was completely different. The pontiff planned to go to this Mediterranean island to denounce the death and the sea of thousands of forced migrants as they tried to reach Europe in ships solid as walnut shells.
The trip was planned for May 2019, but was canceled due to the pandemic. The second scheduled date was December 2021, as the third Mediterranean stage in his visit to Cyprus and Greece, but the proximity of the general elections in Malta made it advisable to postpone it again.
The third time lucky. From Malta, this weekend the Pope will address the war in Europe, the migration crisis, financial difficulties and reconstruction after the pandemic.
Since it is first and foremost about saving lives, Francis plans to ask Europe for humane and generous planning to welcome refugees fleeing wars in Africa and the Middle East. He will give as an example the positive mobilization generated throughout the continent to help the 4 million people who have fled the bombing in Ukraine and will ask that the EU states coordinate forces to integrate these people..
In Brussels and Moscow they are attentive to the political speeches of the Pope's trip. Francis is expected to address the role of NATO, the position of Russia, or the possible mediation of the Holy See for the ceasefire fetch. He will do it with different tones both in the meeting with the political class and the diplomatic corps of Malta on Saturday morning, and during the press conference on the return plane, on Sunday afternoon.
During the trip, of about 36 hours, the Pope will have the opportunity to address other burning issues of abuse such as those faced in the Catholic Church, pollution in the Mediterranean and even freedom of the press, evoked in the wake of the 2017 murder of the journalist. Daphne Caruana Galizia.
The visit will also be able to test the pontiff's health. In recent months he has shown greater difficulty in mobility. At 85 years old, he has hip and knee problems, which the organizers of the trip will overcome to avoid unnecessary parking and eliminate steps through elevators and ramps.
Francisco will recover the popemobile this Saturday, which he has not used since his trip to Iraq in March 2020, with representatives of civil society.
In addition, the van took the ferry to the island of Gozo, visiting the most important sanctuary in the country, 'Ta' Pinu'. On Sunday morning he will go down to the Grotto of Saint Paul in Rabat, where the tradition of the apostle lives for the three months he spent on the island. Then he will have a mass mass in the city of Floriana.
The pope will leave Malta with a visit to a migrant center at the former Ħal Far airbase. There will be a meeting with volunteers and some 200 refugees, most of them survivors of refugee camps in Libya, where there was a mercy from traffickers, after leaving Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan.
In the last year, some 800 emigrants have reached this land, much less than the 3.406 who reached it in 2020, as a transit point to reach the continent.
When Benedict XVI visited the island in 2010, he asked Malta that "based on the strength of its Christian roots and its long and proud history of welcoming foreigners, intend, with the support of other States and international organizations, to come to the aid of those who arrive here and guarantee respect for their rights”.
This time the Pope will meet personally with his characters at the 'Juan XXIII Peace Lab' Migrant Center. This place is the initiative of the Franciscan Dionysius Mintoff, who, although he is 90 years old, together with a group of volunteers, gives professional training to young people who hope to respond to his request for asylum.
There the pontiff will sit before a mosaic of green plastic bottles and tiles, representing the pollution of the sea, decorated with orange life jackets to remember those who perished by drowning. The architect who designed it, Carlo Schembri, also prepared in 2010 some scenarios for the visit of Benedict XVI, and has published on social networks the sketches of what Francis will see.
On the agenda, the Pope has reserved an early meeting for the island's Jesuits, on Sunday at 7:45 in the morning. In addition, the local press has advanced that they could meet in private with some victims of abuse, as Benedict XVI did there.
Since Benedict XVI visited Malta in 2010, he has known many countries of this country and 85% of the population declared themselves Catholic. In 2011, 52% asked in a referendum to introduce divorce; in 2017 Parliament approved same-sex marriage; Since 2018, the freezing of “surplus” embryos during in vitro fertilization has been allowed. On the other hand, abortion and euthanasia are prohibited.
It is the current pontiff's 36th trip, and the 56th country he has visited. They say that etymologically Malta means "welcoming port". They proved it with Saint Paul a little over 1,960 years ago, and now they will prove it with Pope Francis.
