Pope Leo XIV in the Canary Islands from a JPIC perspective
The echo of Pope Leo's steps through the Canary Islands still resounds powerfully in our islands and in our hearts — not as the memory of one more institutional event, but as a direct jolt to the collective conscience. At the La Laguna encounter, in Tenerife, his words did not remain on the surface of diplomacy: they touched all of us deeply as he pointed to the bleeding reality of the Atlantic route, and they were a firm cry in defence of respect for the dignity of every person and for the welcome, protection, promotion and integration of each one, without walls of any kind.
The Pope made a beautiful allusion to the fact that La Laguna is a city without walls; and yet, at times, walls show themselves in gestures, glances, words… It pierced our hearts! Looking out at the horizon of our coasts, he reminded us, in the most beautiful words, that the ocean surrounding us cannot go on being a mass grave, but a bridge of humanity between three worlds: Europe, Africa and America.
From this liquid frontier that the Canary Islands are, his message took on a prophetic urgency: the drama of those who must leave their countries in subhuman conditions and who are sometimes victims of trafficking; who find themselves alone and on the street, not knowing the language, utterly helpless. And this challenges us in the very depths of our faith and our human condition.
To speak of migration in the Canary Islands is to give a concrete, human face to the statistic. It is to give it the weary face of the young people, children and women who reach our beaches after days of uncertainty on the ocean; a weary face, yet alight with hope and courage, for they stake everything on a single card. It is the gaze of mothers seeking a dignified future for their children, who even entrust their own little ones to the cayuco (a migrant boat) to achieve it. Behind every cayuco there is a story of survival, a cry for justice and, above all, a profound dignity that no political or geographical border, nor any social stigma, can erase: they are concrete persons with whom we are in daily contact!
It is precisely here that the Pope's word connects with the transformative gaze of the Assumption. For us, the proclamation of the Gospel carries within it the building of a Kingdom without borders: a theological and human reality in which the only passport required is the status of being a creature and a child of God, and therefore a citizen of our common home. At the Assumption, we try to look at reality not from the logic of maps and exclusive sovereignties, but from the mystique of universal fraternity. In our pedagogy and in our life shared on the peripheries, every person is sacred and every story deserves to be heard and honoured.
The drama of migration is plain: vulnerability, uprooting, bureaucratic obstacles and the painful indifference of a world that often prefers to armour itself rather than to welcome. One need only look at the restrictive European Pact on Migration and Asylum (PEMA), which, sadly, came into force on the very 12 June when Pope Leo was with us in La Laguna! And yet, the Pope's visit and the charism of the Assumption invite us to fix our eyes on the other side of the coin: hope. To lift our gaze with our feet firmly planted on the ground! A hope that is not naïve optimism, but an active force that translates into networks of hospitality, into ecclesial communities that open their doors, and into citizens who refuse to grow used to the suffering of others.
When the Kingdom of God becomes present, borders blur. The La Laguna encounter left us a clear task for the future: to move from the culture of suspicion to the culture of encounter. The Canary Islands, by their position and their history as a migrant people, are called to be the beacon of this new gaze: a gaze that, inspired by the Pope's message and by the commitment of the Assumption, recognises in every brother or sister who reaches our islands the very face of Jesus Christ. It reminds us that the Kingdom we hope for and build has already begun, and that it knows no borders — for borders were never part of God's plan!
Magdalena Morales Valverde, R.A.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife