On the Impending Deportation of Migrants: an Epistle to Pope Francis

Supreme Pontiff,

In my previous letter to you I raised my concern over the death of african migrants on the shores of Europe without any genuine sense of concern or empathy by Europe and her allies. I do not want to take credit for your trip to the United Nations on the same subject barely two weeks after my open letter to you was published on global article directoryezinearticles.com; but I do believe that our intentions must have merged at some otherworldly realm.

But before delving into the subject of my letter, which is not dissimilar to that of my previous epistle to you, I owe you some appreciation and commendation on the occasion of the recent ordination of the First Gambian Catholic Bishop since the beginning of my brethen’s relationship with the Holy See. The new Bishop happens to be a brother who was much my senior at Saint Peter’s Technical High School and I have held him in high regard both before and after his ascendancy on the high rungs of the clergy. I hail you Papa for your High Office’s confidence in our people, that we can also handle our own communications with the Divine Being.

Thou Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, my concern this time relates to the impending mass deportation of my fellow African brothers and sisters from the footsteps of your own cathedral and beyond; all coming from the doorsteps of your flock and their relatives in blood and flesh (if not in spirit). Truly the deportations are coming from nowhere but your neighbourhood, the supposed heirs of the mantle of the Prince of Love and Compassion, Jesus Christ ( May Allah increase His Grace on him).

Why is it that Europe (and by extension, its erstwhile vassal, America) is ready to send back the poor and downtrodden into the very crucibles of poverty and privation that they ran from? Why is it that the West who baited us with the holy sacrament into colonial domination would disobey the commandments of the Lord “to be your brothers keeper” and toss our already tempest-tossed souls back into the traps of conflict and poverty?

The West often argues that their own economic conditions are less than favourable so they cannot accommodate these migrants but yet there pets have better habitations and medical care than those they are trying to jettison back home. Is it not the same West that shaped our industries and trading systems into the poverty traps that they have evolved into through colonial domination and the neo-colonial multinational outfits that they created? Are these biased global systems still not holding our continent and her people sway?

Oh Kind Servant of the Servants of God, let me clarify, lest I become misunderstood, that I have no bones to pick with your ministry. Indeed I am grateful to have had a first-world education in a third world setting at the Catholic institution called St. Peter’s High School. I have seen and relished the good work of your agents in my neighbourhood and I am truly grateful for all the services rendered. But I do know that you have a voice and a huge responsibility, not only to your flock but to humanity in general and my hopes in you rose to another high when I saw you wash the feet of migrants and embrace the downtrodden.

So I appeal to you to make another trip to America, and this time not to New York but to Washington DC; visit the mad man called The Donald, who lives in the so called White House built by the blood and sweat of the ancestors of the very people he is deporting en masse after years of hard work, payment of taxes and good behaviour.

Please do not appeal to his sense of piety for The Donald is not made of flesh and bone but rather of steel and mortar. The only language this pervert can understand is the language of winning and losing at the polls. Please tell him to soften his steel heart towards immigrants or you and your other brothers shall tell his conservative base to fear The Lord and vote him out.

As for your flock back home in Brussels, I urge you to prophesy to them like the bold one, Amos, did in times gone. Speak to them, Oh Primate of Italy, , about the wrath of The Mighty Lord if they don’t change their ways towards the poor travelers. For all the gold and precious stones Europe looted from Africa, advise them to observe the injunction of being kind to the poor and vulnerable; if their hardened hearts would not yield to soft words, then address them thus, as did Amos, in the Old Testament:

“Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.” (Amos, 5:11).

Remind Europe, thou Bishop of Rome, that their duties to the Good Lord transcend ritual prayers in churches and pilgrimages to the Vatican; for the words of Hosea ring true to date:

“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice

The knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” ( Hosea, 6:6)

Supreme Pontiff, I am glad to have your holy attention once again, and I count on your good heart and gracious nature to speak for my brothers and sisters under the Euro-American swords of Damocles.

With due obeisance, I submit.

M. Sabally

Former Presidential Affairs Minister and Founder, Sabally Leadership Academy (SLA)