Europe's 'criminal' attitude towards migrants should never justify decisions by Malta that endanger lives, Gozo Bishop Mario Grech said in a hard-hitting homily at Kerċem on Sunday morning.

His comments coincidentally came as Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on One Radio that Malta's actions on migration were bearing fruit. 

Mgr Grech said Europe's attitude on migration was 'shameful and scandalous'.

Insincerity and lack of political will by European institutions had led to a situation where some countries had taken actions which prevented the migrants from reaching safe harbours and prevented rescues by NGOs.

READ - Malta closes ports to NGO rescue ships

It was true, Mgr Grech said, that several countries, including Malta, could not on their own, shoulder the burden of the migration crisis.  

But if Europe continued to be the Europe of Cain, it would not only be an accessory in 'genocide' but it would also be downtrodding the citizens of the member states.

"Europe's inability to address this humanitarian crisis shows it is seriously sick, it has lost its social bearings. Europe had thrown its founding principles overboard, principles such as solidarity, justice, equality, and others..."

Such a criminal attitude by Europe should never justify any decision by us, the Maltese, that could endanger the lives of the migrants.- Bishop Grech

"Such a criminal attitude by Europe should never justify any decision by us, the Maltese, that could endanger the lives of the migrants. We must never take morally wrong decisions to achieve worthy aims. Saving human life must come before any economic or political calculations.

APPEAL TO GOVERNMENT, OPPOSITION

"My appeal to the government and the Opposition is not to surrender to populism. While seeking a common front in dealings with Europe they should stand by these poor people instead of flexing muscles which could lead to more people drowning.

"It is also important in such a delicate sector not to allow institutional discrimination between the welloff foreigners and the poor, those coming from the East and those coming from Africa."

SCARY INDIFFERENCE

Mgr Grech said indifference by the people when faced by this imhuman situation was scary. It was an indifference that was similar to the deportation of the Jews in the last century.

He quoted the words of an Italian Jew, a survivor of Auschwitz, who said that indifference was a central factor in the years of totalitarianism.

"What killed us even before we were taken into the concentration camp was not the SS violence or the fascists, but the closed windows, the silence of those who could have spoken up."

In the same way that the collective conscience was placated by  the silence of the time, so too, the current silence was placating the collective conscience and rendering all accomplices in this criminal project, Mgr Grech said. 

Such indifference and racism in society was worrying, and he was even more worried that some in the church had been taken in as well.

How could anyone participate in Mass or celebrate the feasts of the saints and then show indifference to what was happening to the migrants? 

CALL TO HELP MIGRANTS IN GOZO IGNORED

He said he could not understand how his call, several years ago, for communities in Gozo to adopt a migrant family, had fallen on deaf ears.

So far only two families had been adopted in this way, one by the diocese itself and another by one parish. 

He said that after meeting the College of parish priests, he was calling on all parish communities to donate the money raised in collections on feast days to the migrants through the Jesuit Refugee Service. 

Read a summary of Mgr Grech's homily, issued in Maltese by the Gozo Curia on pdf below.