The Pope blesses Pedro Sánchez's migratory policy

Special delivery to the Canary Islands (La Laguna, Tenerife)The Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, is playing the immigration card to counter the right, coinciding with the moral battle waged by Pope Leo XIV on the same issue. This Friday, the state executive received the blessing of the head of the Catholic Church for its humanitarian work with newcomers. From the Las Raíces immigrant reception center in La Laguna, Tenerife, which houses 700 residents who arrived on the Canary Islands coast, he was clear: "I appreciate the collaboration from the government, the various institutions, and so many men and women of goodwill who make this humanitarian aid possible," he emphasized, in a speech in French so that the 250 people who were able to witness it could understand him.

The gratitude to the Spanish executive is not futile for a PSOE that this very Thursday asked the PP and Vox to listen to the Pope. Christian humanism has been the link that the socialists have clung to with Leo XIV's homilies, which they have made their own. On this occasion, it was not the Spanish president who was able to applaud him from the front row of authorities – he did accompany him yesterday in Arguineguín – but rather the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz.

In line with what he has done since arriving in Spain, Leo XIV has issued a warning: "All of us, in some way, are migrants" because humans are "pilgrims on the way to the heavenly homeland." The pontiff argued that we must leave behind "a civilization of love and where migrations have an important word to say because they can be an occasion for encounter and mutual enrichment between peoples," in line with what he wrote in black and white in his first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas.

Faced with mostly Muslim newcomers, Leo XIV recalled that the "universality of love" defended by Jesus set the example of "the act of service of a man from another people and another religion who took pity on the injured and mistreated." Minister Saiz also asserted "Spain's commitment to a profoundly human vision" of immigration. "We are all new somewhere at some point in life," she said, before quoting Saint Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, praising "loving service" and condemning "hate speech" and migrant mafias.

Life stories

The migrant center, although it belongs to the State, is managed by Accem and deals with arrivals in the "first reception phase". These people are then distributed to foreign centers of the Ministry of the Interior in the archipelago or the peninsula, according to Francisco Navarro, head of Accem Canaries, to ARA. More than 70,000 people have already been welcomed in recent years, although the maritime tragedy has left many dead.

Boussa Diouf is one of the few women present among the migrants, but she addressed the pontiff: "You look at immigrants with respect, we appreciate your close heart," she said. And after thanking the Church, she defended in rudimentary Spanish "that borders do not become walls of indifference" and that they should not be seen as immigrants, and she emphasized humanity.

Among those present, several migrants have told ARA their stories: Fammara is seventeen years old and arrived in El Hierro two months ago. "I was studying science and I would like to continue, I would like to be a scientist," assures this Gambian in English. He came to the Canary Islands due to the extreme difficulties in his country and after having lost his father. Ismaela, 28 years old, drives the point home and states that he wanted to go "anywhere in Europe to work", despite the dangerous seven-day crossing. "I really appreciate that the Pope is coming because he is a good person. The image of migrants will change 100% thanks to the Pope, we will be treated better, he can help us get documents. That's what we hope for," he says, hopefully.

And the reason he fled is misery, as other colleagues assure: "Salaries in Africa are very low, that's why I came, to help my family and one day be able to return. Things are very difficult there." Muhammad Lamine, 36 years old, shares part of the name of the Barça star, but with a laugh assures that he is from Madrid and admires Florentino Pérez: "I want to work and stay in Spain. I believe the Pope will help us, he is a good man," he says about the pontiff – whom he had only seen on TikTok. He has left his wife and children and wants to help them from here by working.

Muhammad is Muslim, like all the other witnesses, but he feels gratitude for Leo XIV and defends a message of unity between Muslims and Christians: "We all believe in one God." Sekou and Souleiman, twenty years old, left Senegal with some friends to find a better future. Like the others, they hope to return.