A Vatican spokesman is remembering in prayer the hundreds of people who died in recent weeks in the Mediterranean Sea while fleeing conflicts in North Africa.
Since the unrest and conflict began in various countries of North Africa in February, close to 22,000 migrants, the majority Tunisians, have arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa, reported the Italian interior ministry.
The latest tragedy took place on the last week when a boat capsized and 250 migrants fell into the sea.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, recalled these refugees fleeing “from famine, from inhuman poverty, from oppression, from violence, from war […] risking death among the waves without leaving a trace, not even a memory of their name.”
“Many times, in these days, there has been talk of grief ‘without a name,'” the Vatican spokesman said on the latest edition of Octava Dies.
“Compassion obliges us not to forget, to remember, as before other unspeakable tragedies of humanity, of a history that is ours, in solidarity with the poor of the earth,” he said.
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 11, 2011 (Zenit.org)