Pope urges Italy to remain open to migrants during rite of passage visit to presidential palace

Wearing his formal red cape and brocaded stole, Leo thanked Italy for its “generous assistance” to migrants and its efforts to combat human trafficking.

“I encourage you to keep alive your attitude of openness and solidarity,” he said. “At the same time, I wish to emphasize the importance of constructive integration of newcomers into the values and traditions of Italian society, so that the mutual gift realized in this encounter of peoples may truly enrich and benefit all.”

It was a reference to Italy’s role at ground zero in Europe’s migration debate, given its proximity to North Africa — making it the preferred destination for smuggling operations setting off from Libya and Tunisia.

The right-wing government of Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has made cracking down on illegal migration a priority, including by sending migrants back home or to detention facilities in Albania and prosecuting alleged smugglers. Meloni and her hard-line minister Matteo Salvini were in the front row of the audience, held in a gilded reception room of the palace with extra-tall palace guards standing at attention.

Italy’s hard-line stance on migration has often conflicted with Pope Francis’ call for wealthier countries to welcome, defend and integrate newcomers, a position Leo repeated as recently as last week in his first main teaching document.

Tuesday’s encounter was evidence of the close ties between Italy and the Vatican, a 44-hectare (110-acre) city state in the heart of Rome. The location itself underscored the unique and intertwined relationship: The Quirinale Palace was for centuries the summer residence of popes until 1870, when Rome was captured from the papal states and annexed into the newly unified Kingdom of Italy.

After decades in which popes were essentially prisoners of the Vatican, Italy and Holy See normalized relations in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty, which is still in effect.

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