{"id":14573,"date":"2026-06-12T16:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T16:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=14573"},"modified":"2026-06-12T16:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T16:32:10","slug":"pope-tells-traffickers-of-migrants-in-the-canary-islands-stop-repent-or-face-gods-wrath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=14573","title":{"rendered":"Pope tells traffickers of migrants in the Canary Islands: Stop, repent or face God\u2019s wrath"},"content":{"rendered":"

By NICOLE WINFIELD<\/strong><\/p>\n

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LA LAGUNA, Spain (AP) \u2014 Pope Leo XIV warned people smugglers on Friday that they will face God\u2019s wrath for exploiting the desperation of migrants, demanding they stop and repent during his final day in this epicenter of the African migration route to Europe.<\/p>

Read more Iranians endure war fatigue and soaring prices as conflict deepens domestic woes<\/a><\/p>\n

For the second day in a row in the Canary Islands, the American pope insisted on the inherent dignity and rights of migrants and demanded they be welcomed and integrated into society, in some of his strongest comments on the politically divisive issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cBreak those chains and free those you hold in bondage,\u201d Leo said in a message to human traffickers that he delivered during a meeting with humanitarian aid organizations that help migrants on the island of Tenerife.<\/p>\n

Leo wrapped up his weeklong trip to Spain in the Spanish archipelago, which is closer to Africa than the Iberian Peninsula and is a key point of entry for migrants who make the perilous Atlantic crossing from West Africa.<\/p>\n

He is fulfilling a wish of Pope Francis to visit the islands to commemorate the thousands of lives lost at sea. He is also drawing attention to the Catholic Church\u2019s biblically mandated mantra to \u201cwelcome the stranger,\u201d amid anti-migrant sentiment in Europe and the Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation program in his native United States.<\/p>\n

During the encounter with aid groups in Tenerife, Leo implored receiving communities to integrate people fleeing war, poverty and climate change and spare them from the \u201csilent shipwreck\u201d of abandonment when they are left on the streets with nothing after surviving perilous crossings.<\/p>\n

\u201cA human conscience, and even more so a Christian conscience, cannot remain indifferent in the face of these graveyards of the sea, to the victims of shipwrecks and the lack of aid,\u201d Leo said. \u201cEvery life lost on these routes is a failure for the human family.\u201d<\/p>

\n<\/div>\n