Pope Francis returned to Lesbos, a Greek island that has been a centre of Europe's refugee crisis, to offer comfort to asylum seekers and harsh words for a continent that has too often rejected them.
The pontiff admonished the west for handling the humanitarian crisis five years after his last visit. Instead of welcoming people fleeing poverty and war, its indifference and cynical disregard had continued to condemn people to death, he said.
Sisters and brothers, I am here on Lesbos to say I am near you, to look into your eyes full of fear and expectancy, eyes that have seen violence and poverty, the pope told a group of immigrants on Sunday. Francis came to the island at the height of the migration drama in 2016 in a symbolic move seen as a defining moment for his papacy. He sent a message to Europe's political elite by flying back to Rome with a group of Syrian refugees on his plane. In a new era of compassion and goodwill towards people seeking solace, often in the face of great adversity, the gesture appeared to usher in a new era of compassion and goodwill.
Europe had failed to heed the lessons from history, the pope lamented on Sunday as he addressed people seeking asylum and officials who had gathered under a tent in view of a migration camp. The pope said that the Mediterranean had been allowed to become a desolate sea of death in the intervening years when smugglers boats packed with desperate people sank.
He said: "Please let us stop this shipwreck of civilisation, and deploring a decision by many EU countries to build walls along their borders to keep refugees out.
The pope said that Francis, who turns 85 later this month, was animated as he patted children on the head and engaged with men and women lined up around the facility, and asked every man and woman to overcome the fear, the indifference that kills, and the cynical disregard that nonchalantly condemns to death those on the fringes.
The defence of refugees is one of the cornerstones of his eight-year papacy, as he is the son of Italian immigrants who moved to Argentina.
He criticised Europe for the divisions it has shown over migration, warned against the perils of populism and expressed concern over the retreat of democracy in the world, shortly after he arrived in Athens.
While in Cyprus, his first stop, the pope condemned what he described as the slavery and torture of those fleeing war and poverty.
It reminds us of the history of the last century, of the Nazis, of Stalin, he said at a prayer service held for immigrants coalesced in Nicosia, the island's divided capital. We wonder how this could have happened. Francis, who had arranged the relocation of 50 asylum seekers from Cyprus to Rome, reserved his harshest language for the Greek end of his tour.
Citing Athens not only as the birthplace of democracy but where man first became conscious of being a political animal he expressed fears over the disenchanted being lured by the siren songs of authoritarianism and warned against populists promising popular but unrealistic solutions.
Between 2015 and 2016, close to one million people, many fleeing war in Syria, traversed Greece. Lesbos was the busiest entry point, with hundreds of daily landings on its shores in dinghies and other rickety boats.