Pope Francis will be traveling to Cyprus with a message of compassion for the thousands of migrants who have fled to the east Mediterranean island, and a promise that by the end of the year 50 migrants will have been moved to Italy.
The pontiff embarks on a politically sensitive tour on Thursday as the EU country closest to the Middle East struggles with an unprecedented influx of asylum seekers.
They are our brothers and sisters, he said in a video message ahead of the visit.
Francis has made the defence of migrants and refugees a cornerstone of his papacy. In 2016, the Roman Catholic leader stunned Europe's political elite when he opted to share his plane back to Rome with 12 refugees at the end of a historic trip to Lesbos, the island then at the heart of the migration crisis.
Five years later, the pope made clear that during his pilgrimage to war-partitioned Cyprus, his mind would focus again on those who had reached Europe often in the face of great adversity.
I am thinking of those who, in recent years and still today, have been fleeing war and poverty, landing on the shores of the continent and elsewhere, and encountering not hospitality but hostility and even exploitation, he said. How many people have lost their lives at sea? Our sea, the Mediterranean, is a great cemetery. The five-day tour, which takes place in Greece and a second lightning visit to Lesbos, comes amid a hardening of migration policy around the world.
Both Nicosia and Athens have been accused of violent methods, including pushbacks of boats carrying asylum seekers, to keep migrants and refugees at bay.
Greek Cypriot officials say they have been overwhelmed by arrivals that were up 38 compared to all of 2020 in early November.
In May, the government declared a state of emergency, claiming asylum seekers exceeded 4% of the local population.
Most of the Turkish-occupied north cross the buffer zone that is part of the island, a legacy of the frozen conflict that has haunted the country since 1974 when a coup aimed at unity with Greece prompted Ankara to invade.
The Vatican has signalled that the pope, who will be hosted in a Franciscan monastery in no man's land, will mention the need to strengthen bilateral talks in order to solve the island's division.
An ecumenical mass with migrants is planned for a trip to the Church of the Holy Cross in Nicosia after a service at the capital's outdoor stadium on Friday. Francis described Cyprus as the outpost of the Holy Land on the continent of Europe.
Father Jerzy Kraj, patriarchal vicar of the island's Latin community, said he comes with a message of acceptance and tolerance. The cleric said that 50 vulnerable refugees would be transferred at the pope's request to Rome.
The last octogenarian pope will make in 2021 surprised Catholic clergy given the size of congregations in both countries.
There are barely 25,000 Catholics in Cyprus and just twice that number in Greece.
Fr Kraj said that while only seven years had elapsed since the previous pope visited Cyprus, the trip was in keeping with a man who had chosen to be named after one of the most venerated figures in Christianity.
Pope Francis has a Franciscan heart, he said. We never dreamed that he would come to Cyprus so soon, but it is at the peripheries where people are in need. He comes as a brother and shows them his love.