Across the Strait of Gibraltar, the Spanish exclave of Ceuta saw the mass influx of 60,000 migrants. The footage of crowds pouring in accrued millions of views, causing panic across Europe. Within the Church, prelates and the Pope called for solutions and justice. But across Church and state, neither has a uniform response to what those solutions should look like.
The European nations have directed their ire to Spain, the Spanish Government to Morocco, the Spanish left to Israel and President Donald Trump to the previous US administration.
Pope Leo XIV stayed out of the argument. After leading the recitation of the midday Angelus, he said he was following “with concern the alarming situation” and asked for the intercession of Our Lady of Africa “that solutions of peace, stability, and justice may be found”.
Last month he said that Europe had both the capacity and the responsibility to respond to migration with compassion and long-term planning, though he called it a “momentous challenge”.
The incursion was the size of 70 per cent of the territory’s 84,000 population. Nearly all of them, the Spanish Government claims, have returned to Morocco. More than 80 of the migrants have died, with the number expected to rise as specialist divers search for more bodies in the sea.
Spain’s Supreme Court recently ruled that migrants arriving by sea could not be deported without due process. The Government alleged that smugglers propagated rumours that led to the mass influx.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the incident in Ceuta, which has been Spanish since the 16th century, an attack on his nation’s territorial integrity that “deserves our most resounding and energetic condemnation”.
“All of Spain stands with the people of Ceuta. The Government of Spain stands with the Autonomous City. Thank you for the cooperation that we have always maintained with the city government. We will use all the resources of the State to guarantee security and coexistence. And our total and resounding commitment to the future of the Autonomous City of Ceuta.”
The Italian Interior Minister ordered the temporary suspension of its free movement Schengen agreements with Spain in response, impacting people travelling by plane or boat. He said that the move was “in no way a measure directed against Spain or any other partner". France joined them in the restrictions.
“Defending the external borders of the Union is not the interest of a single Nation. It is a shared responsibility of Europe,” said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Sánchez then responded by accusing EU leaders of exploiting the crisis to attack his government. To smooth tensions, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen then sent him a letter praising his Government’s response.
Before the incident, Spain planned to regularise around one million migrants. Across Europe, but particularly in Spain and Italy, migration has become a core issue for the Church. Whether it likes it or not.
The Diocese of Ceuta dedicated a weekend of collections to the Diocesan Delegation for migration in order to channel the funds to the San Antonio Migrant Care Center.
In a statement, the diocese expressed its “deep concern at the gravity of the events and at the particular vulnerability of so many people who are affected by this reality”.
It said: “As a Diocesan Church, we reiterate our full willingness to collaborate with civil institutions and with the competent bodies, putting at their service the human and material resources at our disposal to contribute, from coordination and respect for the competences of each administration, to the attention of the needs that may arise.”
The Spanish Church’s response has not been uniform, however. Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid, president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, took a sterner view.
He said: “Biopolitics is key in the current world power structure. Life is played with, and people – their dreams, hunger, sexuality, and data – are used in favour of profit and power. Migrations are part of this strategy. The Ceuta invasion is a test. Demography is a weapon.”
Otherwise, the Spanish Bishops’ Conference has been remarkably silent.
In Morocco, Archbishop Emilio Rocha Grande of Tangier, said in an interview with Vatican News that the crisis “caught us completely by surprise and prevented us from responding adequately”.
“Ten or twenty thousand people arrived all at once. They had no intention of staying here; they simply wanted to cross. We therefore provided the most basic assistance we could—water and food—but only within the limits of our resources.”
The archbishop cited a young Moroccan population without enough jobs as part of the problem, alongside a portrayal of Europe in the media that portrays it as a paradise.
“Moroccans living in Europe come home for holidays and often speak very positively about life there, even if their own circumstances are not especially favourable,” he said.
There exists a belief among young Moroccans, according to Grande, that merely arriving in Europe will solve that problem. The Archdiocese of Tangier is already the “final staging point” before the Mediterranean for many sub-Saharan migrants hoping to cross it to Europe.
He called on political institutions and religious communities to work together in integrating migrants, objecting to terminology that characterises them as “objects to be moved around according to convenience”.
“We therefore need to deepen dialogue with the European Union and its member states so that we can become genuine partners. Together we must find ways to support one another in promoting development – not only for Morocco but for Africa as a whole – in ways that also benefit Europe. Europe has much to contribute to Africa, and sustained dialogue is essential.”
The call for dialogue, however, is muted when each party is speaking past the other. The crisis is both impossible to ignore, though half as challenging as it is to address. The words of Pope Leo speak to each party, but where the Church faces the practical implementation of policies, it is hardly surer than Brussels.
