The Pope sides with Mediterranea. “They are doing a good job, they are saving a lot of people.” Casarini: “He told me: 'Go back to sea'” La Repubblica

“I also greet the group of Mediterranea saves people, who is present here and who goes to sea to rescue the poor people escaping slavery in Africa. They are doing a good job: they are saving so many people, so many people.” After a month of more or less covert attacks on bishops and priests who have supported the NGO over time, the “seal” for their work comes directly from Pope Francis .
At the end of the general audience this morning, the Pope decided to say goodbye in person Luca Casarini, present in the Nervi room together with a group of users of the Day Center for Mental Health in Naples who created a nativity scene for the Pope. It is one of many that the boys make and sell and then donate the proceeds to Mediterranea and to sea rescue with their Mare Jonio.

“Pope Francis, as always, shows his affection for us and shows that he thinks about concrete things. The Mediterranean is increasingly becoming a cemetery without crosses. There have been over 2,500 confirmed deaths since the start of the year, but in reality there are many more. The recent shipwreck in recent days could have been avoided. Today's UN report confirms that Libya is not a safe haven. These people are being tortured. “The famous smugglers are looking for the governments that we unfortunately finance,” says Casarini at the end of the meeting with the pontiff, who with a dry sentence puts an end to all speculation about the relations between the Vatican, its bishops and priests and the Vatican NGO puts an end to it.

Relationships and contacts that the company has investigated for unknown reasons Ragusa Public Prosecutor's Office, which is taking action against Casarini, five other crew members and activists of Mediterranea for aiding illegal immigration and violating some rules of the Maritime Code. In short, nothing to do with the organization's funding sources, much less its relationships with priests and bishops, but nevertheless you were at the center of investigations, information and draft notes filed in the files of a case that has not yet taken place completed. Preliminary hearing.
“We don’t even have some of them,” denounced Mediterranea’s lawyers. Serena Romano and Fabio LanfrancaWhen entire passages of these documents – technically still confidential – reached the press, the impression arose that this flow of donations had been used by Casarini and other Mediterranea representatives for very personal purposes. All lies, replied the NGO, which branded everything as a “dossier file to influence the outcome of the proceedings and to attack the Pope.”

It ended with a complaint to the prosecutor's office and a request for clarification from the Ragusa judges, while the preliminary hearing – at which the judge was called to decide whether the prosecutor's office was able to gather enough information for a trial – was postponed in February.
“Pope Francis told me: 'Courage, go, return to the sea'”, Casirini will probably explain in the afternoonGregorian University to talk about Mediterranea and the rescue operations carried out over the years.

We will soon start again, they promise from the NGO, which is now fighting on another legal front. She was stopped after the last mission and fined for not asking for instructions and a “safe haven” in Libya. She has challenged this measure and will discuss it in court. The documents also contain statements from the 69 shipwrecked people who were rescued by the crew on the last mission and who told the on-board doctor and mediators about torture, violence and ill-treatment in Libyan prisons and concentration camps.

A “map of horror” reflected in the latest United Nations report on Libya. “During a visit to the Judaydah women’s prison in Tripoli on August 13 – explains the Secretary General in his report Antonio Guterres – UNSMIL met detainees who reported being subjected to torture and ill-treatment, sexual violence, isolation and separation from their children.” One of the many Libyan concentration camps, many of which cannot be monitored by international authorities – says in UN report – have little or no access to “migrant detention centers under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior or to unofficial immigration detention centers under the control of armed groups”.