Pope Leo XIV, who has clashed with the Trump administration over immigration crackdownsspent Saturday the Fourth of July at the epicenter of Europe’s migration debate to commemorate the tens of thousands of people who died trying to reach Europe to find freedom and prosperity.
While the United States notes 250th anniversary of the declaration of independence with rallies, parties and fireworks, the US-born pope traveled to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to pray at a migrant cemetery and celebrate a solemn Mass for the island’s residents and new arrivals.
Later Saturday, he got into the Fourth of July spirit by visiting the residence of US Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch, a rarity for popes who don’t usually visit ambassadors. The U.S. Embassy said Birch presented Leo with a commemorative baseball, an apple pie and a USA World Cup knitwear
Leo confirmed that he will root for Team USA, the embassy wrote on X, adding that they discussed “America’s efforts to achieve peace, religious freedom and the need for moral clarity and courage around the world.”
Pool photo/Ciro Fusco, Via AP 
Lampedusa, a treeless 5.6-mile strip of rock, is closer to Africa than mainland Italy and is the main port of entry into Europe for hundreds of thousands of people. migrants who crossed by boat from Libya or Tunisia, often smuggled by human traffickers.
Leo met some migrants at the port and then walked alone to the jagged rocks of the jetty, the wind billowing his cassock and blowing his zucchetto hat as he looked out to sea. He then dedicated a plaque dedicated to the dock Pope Franciswho visited in 2013 before celebrating Mass on the ground.
“This is a place where gestures speak louder than words,” Leo said. “But for gestures to be human, they need a heart.”
By paying a visit this Saturday, Leo was sending a powerful symbolic message USA and Europe on the Christian duty to uphold the dignity of every person, especially migrants and the most vulnerable, while reminding the US that it was founded by immigrants.
AP Photo / Alessandro Tarantino 
In a letter to Americans on the Fourth of July anniversary, Leo insisted that protecting the unborn and all human life also means “welcoming, protecting and helping immigrants whose hopes, sacrifices and contributions have been a part of this country’s history since its beginning.”
“To receive them with compassion and generosity is not only an act of mercy, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human being,” Leo wrote.
The tiny island has become ground zero for the European debate on migration
In recent years, Lampedusa has become ground zero for Europe’s migration debate as the continent struggles to maintain its borders while meeting its legal obligations to take in refugees fleeing conflict, climate change and poverty.
In his homily, Leo thanked the people of Lampedusa for the “miracle of compassion” they had shown in welcoming migrants and called on Europe to accept the challenge of the present and take responsibility.
“Indeed, before any intellectual considerations or ideological convictions, meeting those who lie before us, bereft of everything, calls us to be close to them,” said Leo, wearing robes emblazoned with images of waves.
Preaching from “this far-off corner of Europe on the Mediterranean”, Leo called on European leaders to tackle the phenomenon of migration comprehensively, combining immediate aid with long-term strategies to welcome, protect, support and integrate migrants, while developing their countries so that no one is forced to migrate.
“Here you saw not one, but thousands of people who fell into the hands of robbers, who took everything from them, beat them severely and left, leaving them half alive,” he said.
Others died on the journey, he said, “but we feel their presence, which challenges us no less than the presence of those who have landed and need attention and help.”
The number of migrants arriving in Italy this year is far lower than in recent years, with the Interior Ministry reporting 14,464 arrivals as of Friday, down from 30,598 in the same period last year and 26,202 in 2024.
Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration has recorded more than 35,000 missing migrants in the Mediterranean since 2014, although the actual death toll is believed to be much higher, given the countless “invisible” shipwrecks that are never reported.
Leo strongly emphasized the need to uphold the dignity of migrants, especially amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation program in his native Chicago. But he also sent his message to the Christian leaders of Europe.
Last month, Leo visited another European migration hotspot, Spain’s Canary Islands, to shame leaders who dismiss migrants with indifference and to warn people smugglers that they will face God’s wrath for exploiting migrants’ desperation.
The lion honors the dignity of the dead and reminds Francis
After arriving in Lampedusa by plane, Leo paid homage to the dead at the island’s migrant cemetery, laying a wreath of yellow and white flowers on their graves, marked by simple crosses made from split wood from shipwrecked boats.
The gestures send a “strong signal” of solidarity, said Tarek Brhane, an Eritrean migrant and president of the October 3 Committee, a nonprofit founded by relatives of victims of the 2013 Lampedusa shipwreck that killed 368 people.
“This is a strong sign for our fight with Italy and Europe to register deaths, because to date we still do not have a register (of the dead),” he told the Associated Press.
Leo’s visit both honors the dead and “gives news to relatives, many of whom are still waiting and suffering,” he said.
With his visit, Leo followed in the footsteps of Francis, who made the problem of migrants and refugees a priority of his pontificate. For the Catholic Church, welcoming and accompanying people fleeing hardship is part of the Gospel’s call to “receive the stranger.”
Francis visited Lampedusa in July 2013, his first trip outside Rome since his election. He threw a wreath into the sea in memory of the dead migrants and condemned them “globalization of indifference” what the world shows migrants.
Salvatore Sortino, the IOM’s head of mission for Italy and Malta, said that despite the drop in arrivals, the death toll had increased proportionately, “in the sense that the drop in arrivals has not led to a drop in deaths at sea”.
“It speaks to the vulnerability that remains,” he said. “So the Pope’s visit here, where all this is happening, I think is a very important reminder of that element.”