“He has an extremely courageous message”, greets the mayor of Marseille

Pope Francis had “an extremely courageous message”, greets Saturday September 23 on franceinfo Benoît Payan, mayor of Marseille, on the occasion of the sovereign pontiff’s visit to his city. From his first day of visit, in front of the memorial to sailors and migrants missing at sea, the pope denounced on Friday the fate of migrants in the Mediterranean, castigating “indifference” and the “fear”.

“This universal message goes beyond the Catholic Church”

For Benoît Payan, through this message “with strong words”Pope Francis addressed “to all those who close their eyes, to all those who act as if these tragedies we are experiencing did not exist and to all those who brush aside our humanity”. This speech was also addressed, according to the mayor of Marseille “to the countries of origin, where there is sometimes a hoarding of wealth”. “These are countries which have very rich soils and which would be capable of developing if we gave them the means”, he specifies. Benoît Payan affirms that a “responsibility also weighs on the multinationals who have plundered the resources of these countries”.

>> Pope’s visit to Marseille: a speech to denounce indifference to migrants

Benoît Payan maintains that the Pope “don’t lecture anyone” and had no intention of “blame anyone”. “He does not say that we must provide an absolute welcome and create migratory waves, as some try to caricature”, adds the mayor of Marseille. He also considers that the fact that this speech was delivered in the Marseille city has “a particular resonance”because according to him Marseille “is a city which symbolizes welcome, which has suffering, which has experienced difficulties and which has always recovered”.