Pope rallies Frenchmen amid debate on meddling

In Marseille, a French Mediterranean city, where Pope Francis has entered an acrimonious European debate on allowing refugees, tens of thousands of people are anticipated to witness the pontiff celebrate mass and process through the streets.

Nearly 60,000 people are expected to fill the Velodrome stadium in France's second-largest city, and up to 100,000 people may line the Avenue du Prado for his "popemobile" tour prior to the Mass.

The chairman of an undocumented immigrant group in Marseille, Francky Domingo, expressed his hope that the pope's visit would "give us back a little hope" and "calm the political tensions."

A "cosmopolitan, multicultural, multireligious" hub, the Mediterranean port "faces enormous difficulties, drug trafficking that claims human lives every day, and the problem of housing," Domingo continued.

In an effort to reverse the deteriorating trend, President Emmanuel Macron has pledged billions of dollars to rebuild the city's infrastructure after over 40 people were killed in shootings there this year.

However, not everybody has praised the Pope's visit. Left-leaning MPs have criticized Macron's attendance at Mass on Saturday as a violation of official secularism. Francis has come under fire from right-wingers for "interfering" in domestic politics.

Upon his arrival on Friday, the pope fervently urged Europe to accept migrants rather than give in to "fanaticism of indifference" and "paralysis of fear."

The recent wave of large arrivals on the Italian island of Lampedusa has heated up the conversation on immigration.

Gerald Darmanin, the French Interior Minister who welcomed the pope upon his arrival, has sworn not to accept a single one.

The iconic Notre Dame de la Garde church in Marseille, where sailors have historically prayed for protection and model ships offered in gratitude hang from the roof, was Francis' first stop when visiting the city.

The pontiff urged that "people who are at risk of drowning when abandoned on the waves must be rescued" at a monument that looked out over city rooftops and the glistening Mediterranean.

The pope hailed humanitarian organizations for saving migrants in peril at sea and denounced attempts to stop their behavior as "gestures of hate" in unprepared words he added at the conclusion of his speech.

With AFP