People on the move

I had a meeting yesterday morning with a couple whose wedding I shall be blessing on Saturday at the church in nearby Frigiliana. Bride and groom live in Britain, but the bride's English parents live in the village. The groom's family are Mallorcan and they'll be coming from there. It's another reminder of the movement and settlement of people made possible by the existence of European Union. This is valuable, not only at the political and economic level, but at the personal, domestic and social level, in the exchange of tradition and custom, and the shared pleasures this brings.

Just as we get used to the new kind of normality that ease of international mobility gives, the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees and economic migrants from third world countries, makes huge demands on resources, and seems uncontrollable, driven as it is, by need, or fear of violence. It's generating new anxieties, xenophobia and racism, and is a real challenge to all E.U. countries to deal with in a just and humane way, that curbs the threat of increased criminality, either among migrants or among those wishing to exploit their plight. 

Despite being resource rich, African and Middle Eastern countries are still plagued by problems arising from the seemingly unbridgeable gulf between powerful rich minorities and the majority poor. Injustice breeds violence, but the impact of climate change places everyone under additional pressure as environmental impairment reduces the possibility of countries being able to sustain their growing populations. 

African street traders have been a common feature of Mediterranean coastal life for more than the past decade, people in a position to take risky initiatives, work hard and patiently, driven more by opportunity than need. Today's population influx fleeing conflict is much more of a mixture of educated people and poor peasants, all of whom may have good things to contribute once settled provided there is a will to make it happen. In the long term, Europe will be enriched by accepting them. It may help re-create relationships with Third World countries following the eventual demise of economic as well as political colonialism

It's so good that Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change pulls no punches, respects the science, challenges the dominance of modern consumerist culture and calls environmental damage 'a sin' - yes indeed - if the church's understanding of sin as anything which causes suffering is truly understood. He will come in for fierce criticism from those with vested interests in denying the seriousness of the environmental crisis we are facing. Church leaders internationally are applauding his bold stance. But will the captains of industry and their political supporters listen.

Today was pretty hot. I had a pile of work to do, which kept me in most of the time. For the second day running, I went out for a stroll after sunset, and got a few more photos of the thin sliver of a moon and a couple of bright planets before they followed the sun below the horizon. This is just one of several

  You can find more photos here