Postcards from Lampedusa With Leo — July 4 2026

For the Fourth of July, U.S. born Pope Leo left the Vatican early to make a short flight to the island of Lampedusa.

Lampedusa is an 8-square mile windblown rock, about 110 miles south of Sicily, and 60 miles north of the Tunisian coast. Its population of 6000 depend on fishing, olives and tourism.

 

But as part of Italy, it’s also famous for migrants; particularly drowned migrants, fleeing famine, plague and war to the south, aiming for the wonderland of the European Union  for refuge and safety.

Hundreds of thousands have shoved off the north African coast in rickety or overloaded boats. Many thousands haven’t made it. Yet they keep coming. (Lampedusa officials said 17 arrived the night before Leo landed.)  Once there, many face backlash from residents who feel threatened and politicians exploiting this unrest.

So there’s a special cemetery and coastal marker there: the cemetery is for drowned migrants. The marker is a large stylized doorway, dubbed “The Gateway to Europe.”

 

 

Leo told local officials that he “had not come to make speeches,” but to celebrate a public mass —a pastoral visit. “ This is a place where gestures speak more than words.”

During the mass, though, he did speak of those lost in the sea nearby:

“Those who have lost their lives in this sea are victims both of decisions that were made and of decisions that were not made,” the pope said, citing “indifference to the common good and corruption in their countries of origin; a global economic system that generates poverty and exclusion; fear that fuels prejudice and contempt; the belief that such problems do not concern us; the criminal calculations of those who profit from the suffering of others; the slow and difficult transition from mere emergency management to the development of comprehensive and shared policies.”

Among his gestures were laying a wreath at the cemetery, and then meeting some migrant families. He walked with one to the southern tip of the island  where the “Gateway” stood. He climbed rocks to the site, as his vestments flapped in the wind (and his white papal beanie was blown into the sea; an aide soon fetched a spare).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, back in the USA, The New York Times reported yesterday that:

And the White House has scheduled a lengthy presidential speech for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It is to be followed by what has been described as the hugest fireworks display ever.