Monday 8 July 2013

Pope Francis commemorates dead migrants at Lampedusa

A gust of wind lifts up Pope Francis' mantle as he stands onboard a boat at Lampedusa Island, southern Italy, July 8, 2013. REUTERS-Alessandro Bianchi

Pope Francis laid a wreath in the port of Lampedusa on Monday in memory of the thousands of migrants from Africa who have died trying to reach the tiny Sicilian island in unsafe and overcrowded boats.
Francis' choice of Lampedusa for his first official trip outside Rome is highly symbolic for the new pontiff, who has placed the poor and dispossessed at the centre of his papacy and has urged the Church to return to its mission of serving them.

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