This article first appeared in New English Review.
Pope Leo XIV is wrapping up his 4-day visit to France this week, and one of his central messages has been that the country, and Europe in general, must welcome the millions of migrants arriving in record numbers, whether legal or illegal. Like his predecessor, Pope Francis, Leo’s experience with migration has been mostly shaped by the Latin American experience, which is different in many ways from the situation in Europe. Like his predecessor, Leo seems indifferent to the reality of what is happening daily in France and the rest of Western Europe, where violent migrant crime is out of control, to say nothing of Islamic terrorism.
The sheer irony of
the situation staring the Pontiff in the face is staggering. In June, he was
visiting Spain, with the same message of support for the migrants. Then, on
July 30, the latest in a series of border invasions at the Spanish North
African enclave of Ceuta broke all records when some 72,000 migrants from North
and Sub-Saharan Africa stormed across the border, many literally swimming
across. Today, some 3,000 still remain camped out on Ceuta’s beaches as
soldiers and police struggle to remove the remaining holdouts. Sexual attacks
are a recurring problem, and just this
week, a 17-year-old Moroccan girl was raped and almost killed on Ceuta’s Trampolin
Beach. Two Moroccan migrants, aged 42 and 21, are charged with the crime. While
this was happening, Pope Leo was in France giving lectures to the French about
welcoming migrants.
Also, while Leo was in France giving advice, a 93-year-old
handicapped woman was
murdered in her own home in Toulouse this week. When police responded to
the house, alerted by neighbors, they found a 30-year-old male at the scene,
nude and in a dazed state. During the arrest, a French police officer was
injured in the scuffle. The suspect is described only as a male, 30 years old,
and in France illegally.
Tell that to Pope Leo.
These are not isolated or anecdotal incidents. They are
happening daily across Western Europe. I say Western Europe because the Eastern
European members of the European Union are much more sensible. Having only
recently been freed from the chains of communism, they are not about to enter
into a new dark age. They are resisting the EU’s call to “take in their fair
share”.
Is it a coincidence that neither of the last two popes has
been European? Can one blame a European for feeling resentful that the last two
pontiffs, major world figures of world opinion, have arrived from South and
North America, respectively, and lectured Europeans about the need to accept
millions of newcomers who, in far too many cases, have arrived uninvited and
rather than assimilating and contributing to their host countries, have become economic
burdens and have committed violent crimes and, in some cases, acts of terror?
Yes, there are decent immigrants in Europe, from many different parts of the
world, but they are overshadowed by the gangs, the mafias, the Islamists, the
terrorists, the drug dealers, the rapists, and the thugs inhabiting the various
“no-go zones” of European cities. I could go on and on. The ink on this piece
won’t even be dry before the next innocent victim will be dead somewhere in
Spain, France, or some other Western European city, town, or beach.
And every day, thousands more young, unaccompanied,
unidentified men arrive, all with the Pope’s blessing.
As Pope Leo pontificates, thousands of Europeans in Spain,
France, and other Western European countries are marching to protest their
governments’ inaction. Leo views this with alarm. He also views with alarm the
rise of conservative anti-migration political parties like France’s Rassemblement
National, Spain’s Vox, Germany’s Alternatif fuer Deutschland,
and others, blissfully unaware of why they are becoming so popular.
Somebody needs to explain to the Pontiff and to (Western) Europe’s
political leaders that people are dying, and it has reached the breaking point.
Nobody should have to die on the altar of political correctness and the Pope’s
misguided idea of welcome.
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