The Mediterranean must return to
being a "peace laboratory", said Pope Francis closing the
Mediterranean Meetings in Marseille on Saturday.
"This is its vocation: to be a place where different countries
and realities meet on the basis of our shared humanity, not of
opposing ideologies," he told his audience including French
President Emmanuel Macron, French Interior Minister Gérard
Darmnin, Central European Bank President Christine Lagarde and
European Commissioner Margaritis Schinas, responsible for
coordinating the Commission's work on a New Pact on Migration
and Asylum.
The Mediterranean, said the pope, is the expression of a
"community way of thinking".
"How much we need it at the present juncture, where antiquated
and belligerent nationalisms want to end the dream of the
community of nations!" said Francis.
"But let us remember that with weapons one makes war, not peace,
and with the hunger for power one always goes back to the past,
rather than building the future," he added.
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