ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
"Plaza del Cristo de La Laguna" (Tenerife)
Friday, 12 June 2026
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Address of the Holy Father
Dear brothers and sisters,
It is a pleasure for me to share this moment with you here in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, the seat of this diocese. I was struck by what has been said about this city: It is without walls, an open city.
Perhaps this detail helps us to understand that the barriers that are the hardest to break down are not always made of stone. Sometimes they lie in our attitudes, in fear or in indifference. The sea which surrounds these islands brings us stories that we do not always know how to interpret: stories of pain, of hope and of searching. In a city without walls, the heart too is called to open wide to welcome those who bring these stories with them. That is why we need to learn the language of closeness, which is understood more with hands than with words.
Braille and other forms of tactile writing remind us that words can also be conveyed through touch. In the same way, integration requires learning to read in a different way. There are those whose gazes see and yet do not recognize; they turn a face into a number, a story into a file and a difference into distance. The Gospel, therefore, teaches us a deeper way of reading reality: one that originates from closeness, patience and hands capable of helping, accompanying, guiding, teaching and opening paths.
In the efforts to integrate these brothers and sisters of ours — as in every work of charity — the Church learns to read in the concrete lives of those who suffer in body or spirit a living sign that points to the holy Gospels. It becomes legible through touch and closeness when we feel the wounds of others. Like Thomas before the glorious body of the Risen One, the Church too learns that viewed through the lens of faith, wounds can become a place of recognition. Where human suffering is touched with love, Christ confirms to us that he is present in the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned and the stranger (cf. Mt 25:35–40). From that faith which recognizes the living Christ springs the service of Father Darwin and of so many others. Christian charity flows from the love of God poured into the heart of the believer; for this reason, in the presence of the needy, faith becomes concrete and love for Christ is transformed into deeds.
From this conviction, our presence aims to bear witness to the fact that solidarity arises from the recognition of human dignity and transcends any mere act of charity or philanthropy. It is called to be a commitment and to take the form of a process. Welcome opens the door; integration helps one cross the threshold. Assistance applies a salve to the wound, and integration rebuilds the future.
Integration does not mean erasing the history of those who arrive or demanding that they leave behind everything that is part of their memory. Nor does it mean creating parallel worlds, closed off from one another, where people live side by side without truly encountering one another. Integration is a reciprocal journey: those who arrive learn to inhabit a new land, and those who welcome them learn to expand their own homes without diluting their identity or closing their hearts to the encounter. To you, dear migrant brothers and sisters, a noble and necessary part of this journey belongs: to open yourselves with trust to the community that welcomes you, to learn its language, to respect its laws, to get to know its customs, to participate in communal life and to offer your gifts with gratitude.
Every welcoming society has responsibilities toward those who arrive, and those who are welcomed also discover that dignity, recognized as a right, flourishes when it becomes a duty and a sincere desire to build together with others. In this way, those who arrived as strangers can rediscover bonds, rebuild trust and feel like a living part of a community. This is a precious form of mercy.
We are speaking, above all, of people created in the image and likeness of God, rather than of legal categories or problems to be managed. After difficult journeys and, at times, several attempts — as in Khalid’s case — they look for someone to tell them through actions rather than with words: your life is not a waste; your suffering is not invisible; your dignity has not been washed away in the waters you have crossed — as Mbacke told us. Yet they are also looking for something more: a concrete possibility to start over, to learn, work, serve, participate and not to remain forever trapped in the role of victims.
In this regard, I would like to express my gratitude for Bishop Eloy’s words and, through them, for the witness of a Church that, even with limited resources, seeks to “walk with those who are walking.” Thank you to the Diocesan Caritas, the Diocesan Migration Office, the parishes and the many ecclesial and civil organizations that go beyond providing immediate aid to support processes of protection, promotion and integration. Thank you for making it possible for those who were once accompanied to become — as Thalia reminded us — a bridge for others, returning the love they received. When those who once needed a helping hand begin to extend their own, the charity received is transformed into shared responsibility.
At the same time, we cannot forget the many migrants from Latin America, the Philippines and other parts of the world who are already a living part of the community. Through their faith, work and gifts, they help to renew the community. Let yourselves also be evangelized by them, for they surely bring with them gifts that Providence has wished to send to you through those who are integrating. They remind us that integration means making space so that a person can feel a sense of shared responsibility. In this way, yesterday’s stranger can be today’s brother and neighbor.
I would like to ask Catholics for something else: that integration not be reduced to a social undertaking, however necessary that may be. Those who come to our parishes need bread, shelter, language assistance, work and protection. They also must find a community capable of offering paths to knowing Jesus Christ through the witness of life and word, while always respecting the conscience and freedom of each person. Evangelization is sharing, with respect and humility, the treasure that sustains our action and our hope. A Church that welcomes is also a Church that proclaims, offering Christ without imposing him and which, at the same time, receives the Gospel from the hands of the poor.
A 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. Every life lost on these routes is a failure for the human family. Nevertheless, there is also a silent shipwreck that occurs after arrival: being left alone in a city, without a voice, without ties, work or a sense of security, and exposed to those who take advantage of vulnerability. Integration means preventing that second shipwreck. It means helping those who arrived wounded not to remain forever stuck in their pain, but to be able to get back on their feet, recognize their gifts and offer them to the community.
From this square, I wish to address a clear message to those who take advantage of people’s desperation, to those who organize death routes, traffic in human beings, withhold documents, exploit workers, threaten women, deceive families and turn the suffering of others into a business. Stop. Repent (cf. Mk 1:15). The tears and blood of these brothers and sisters cry out to God, and their suffering reaches him (cf. Gen 4:10; Ex 3:7–9). The money wrested from the vulnerability of the poor will bring neither peace, nor honor, nor a future (cf. Jer 22:13; Job 5:1–6).
For every life lost, every family deceived, every body subjugated, every woman threatened, every worker exploited, you will have to appear before divine justice (cf. 2 Cor 5:10). Break those chains and free those you hold in bondage (cf. Is 58:6). Return what has been taken and make amends as much as you can. Repent while there is still time, for God’s mercy can reach even the most hardened sinner, but it enters only through the narrow gate of truth, justice and conversion (cf. Ez 33:11).
Sisters and brothers, fear, indifference and the violence of those who trade in human life must not have the final word. That belongs to Christ, who identifies with the stranger, touches the wounds of humanity and calls us to recognize him in every brother and sister who needs to be welcomed, protected, supported and integrated. Let us lift our gaze to him, without turning away from those who suffer; let us look to the Lord to learn to see our brothers and sisters through his eyes.
The Holy Family of Nazareth, which had to flee to Egypt to protect the life of the Child Jesus (cf. Mt 2:13–15), remains for all time a model and refuge for every refugee family, every migrant and every person forced to leave their homeland out of fear, persecution or necessity (cf. Pius XII, Apostolic Constitution Exsul Familia). May the members of the Holy Family sustain the service you offer and make this land a place where everyone recognizes and treats one another as brothers and sisters. May God bless you. Thank you very much.
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Impromptu Remarks of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV from the Balcony of the Bishopric of San Cristóbal de La Laguna (Tenerife)
Good morning, everyone.
Thank you all very much. Thank you for being here, and thank you for such a warm and beautiful welcome. Above all, I want to thank you for the generosity and hospitality you show to immigrants and newcomers.
Every one of us deserves to be recognized because of the dignity that God bestowed upon us at the moment of our creation.
We are all brothers and sisters, some from Peru, some from Colombia, some from Venezuela, some from Tenerife.
But together we are one human family.
Thanks be to God, who has given us the gift of life.
Thanks be to God, who has given us the capacity to love and to be loved. It is in sharing our lives with one another that we discover the deepest meaning and purpose of our existence.
Thank you all.
We will meet again a little later.
Thank you for being here, and may God bless you abundantly: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you. Thank you very much.