Pope heads to Malta

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis heads to the Mediterranean island nation of Malta, today, for a pandemic-delayed weekend visit, aiming to draw attention to Europe’s migration challenge has only become more stark with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Francis is likely to encourage Europe’s embrace of Ukrainian refugees while also urging countries to extend the same welcome to migrants coming from Libya and elsewhere.

Malta, the European Union’s smallest country with a half-million people, has long been on the front lines of the flow of migrants and refugees across the Mediterranean. It has frequently called upon its bigger European neighbors to shoulder more of the burden receiving would-be refugees.

Francis has frequently echoed that call, and will certainly link it this weekend to the welcome the Maltese once gave the Apostle Paul, who according to the biblical account, was shipwrecked off Malta in around A.D. 60 while en route to Rome and was shown unusual kindness by the islanders.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said migration will top the agenda for Francis’ trip and said Europe’s reception of Ukrainian refugees was “truly admirable.”

“I hope that this tragic experience can also really help to grow, to increase sensitivity also towards the other migration, the one that comes from the south,” he told Vatican Media.