The head of the Catholic Church was seen proudly holding a pin reading “Let’s open our harbours” during a meeting focused on welcoming migrants and people in need. The sentence on the pin has become the catchphrase for people fighting Mr Salvini’s anti-immigration rules, who during the summer of 2018 started closing the Italian harbours to dinghies and rescue ships carrying asylum-seekers. Pope Francis happily took a picture with Nandino Capovilla, an Italian priest who runs an organisation called Amadou near Venice, helping young refugees get back on their feet, with the pin in his hand.
Mr Capovilla was attending ‘Free from fear’ (Liberi dalla paura), a meeting in Sacrofano, 25km north of Rome, together with the Pope and a number of families and associations giving a home or a job to migrants in Italy.
The priest published the picture on his Facebook profile, from which it went viral.
The Pope has called multiple times for people and politicians to be more welcoming towards immigrants.
In December last year he warned governments to stop blaming migrants for all the evils.
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