• On Monday 27th March 2017, Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna blessed a flag of St Peter and St Paul, at the beginning of a debate orgnised by MOAS, at St James Cavalier, Valletta.

  • Message by Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna

  • Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests,

    I have been asked to do two things, to say a word of introduction in favour of human corridors, and then to bless this flag which unites so many efforts of solidarity: Italy, Germany, and I hope Malta. This flag is going to be carried on the MOAS ship, and it represents Peter and Paul and the crossed keys. It has a long history of very special circumstances that MOAS crew, and also Regina and Chris, remember. Our prayer and blessing of this flag is also a prayer and blessing on all those who are going to be part of this new season of compassion and solidarity this year.  

    Offering a human corridor is a simple way of saying that we are all brothers and sisters. Offering a human corridor is not only saving lives, but also trying to give a very concrete answer to the question: ‘Why should people die at sea?’ They shouldn’t. But what we are going to do to prevent it? Some have accused these initiatives as actually playing into the hands of the wrong people. Our prayer today is that they do not. It is a very complex world, and things that are done with the best of motivations, sometimes fail, miserably or not. Today we also pray that all the efforts on the Mediterranean lead to a culture of life and not of death.

    Today we also pray that all the efforts on the Mediterranean lead to a culture of life and not of death.

    Some say that life began at sea, that the sea was the first element of evolution. Unfortunately, the Mediterranean has not been so many often an environment of life, but rather a cemetery for the dead. And efforts like this, I think, would want to bring the Mediterranean back to its real environment, that of being a source of life and not a place of death.

    ✠ Charles J. Scicluna     
             Archbishop of Malta

  • Photos: Darrin Zammit Lupi/MOAS.eu