The Pope: 'No people can be forced into exile'

"All peoples, even the smallest and weakest, must be respected by the powerful in their identity and their rights, particularly the right to live in their own lands; and no one can force them into exile." Leo XIV addressed these clear words to a delegation from the Chagos Refugees Group association in Port Louis, Mauritius, specifying that their case has a "symbolic force on the international scene."

The case of the Chagos Islands refugees is truly emblematic and timely: the dispute over these small islands in the Indian Ocean, claimed by the young republic of Mauritius but occupied by Great Britain at the end of the Second World War, has finally been resolved positively with a treaty approved on June 30, reached thanks to the mediation of the International Court of Justice and the United Nations.

Pope Francis, cited by Leone, also supported the Chagos refugees by espousing their demand to be able to return to their homeland during his apostolic journey to Mozambique, Madagascar, and Mauritius in 2019.

The local population was in fact deported to Mauritius to build an unapproachable military base under the control of Great Britain and the United States. Acknowledging the "suffering of your people," Pope Prevost said he was "happy that dialogue and respect for the decisions of international law have finally been able to remedy a grave injustice."

Leo also wanted to pay tribute to the particular determination of the women of the Chagossian people, "in the peaceful assertion of their rights": "You have known poverty, contempt, and exclusion," he acknowledged. "May the Lord heal your wounds and grant the grace of forgiveness to those who have harmed you."

Dialogue, mediation, respect for international law and the rights of peoples, action by international courts, and multilateralism are therefore the guidelines for the American Pontiff, which will guide him in a world that, he said in another audience, this time with the Anglo-Saxon network of Catholic legislators and public officials, is "concerning" because of "the direction it is taking."

These words come after the Day of Prayer and Fasting called for peace in Ukraine, Gaza, and other conflict zones. They are paralleled by today's call to contrast the city of man, founded on "love of self, power, prestige, and pleasure," with the city of God evoked by St. Augustine, founded on "altruism, justice, charity, and humility."

"The future of human prosperity," Leone emphasized, "depends on the love we choose to organize society." In this regard, if Pope Francis "had highlighted the need for a 'diplomacy of hope,' I would add," Prevost said, "that we also need a 'politics of hope' and an 'economy of hope' for a more just and balanced world."