2023-08-16 11:30:00
DISPATCH — On Tuesday August 15 in La Goulette, Tunisia, hundreds of Catholics and Muslims enjoyed the traditional procession of the Madonna of Trapani to call for “living together”. This initiative is a response to strong tensions relating to migrants.
Historically, the procession saw the statue of the Virgin set off from La Goulette to Tunis, carried on the shoulders of believers. In Tunisia, Muslims and Jews regularly joined the march. This tradition would have known its peak in 1909, but would have died out in 1964, a few years after Tunisia became independent. It reappears in 2017, but the route has clearly decreased.
This year, 200 meters were covered, to the town hall of La Goulette. There, the Archbishop of Tunis and the Bishop of Trapani (Sicily) pronounced the Gospel, after which they alluded to the tensions around the migrant file with “a prayer for the civil authorities”.
Last February, President Kais Saied gave an incendiary speech on illegal immigration. As AFP reports, this has resulted in hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants losing their jobs and homes. Attacks have been recorded and several thousand have had to be repatriated by their embassies. At the beginning of July, hundreds of others were driven out of the city of Sfax (center-east) and expelled by the Tunisian security forces, in particular towards a desert border zone with Libya where at least 27 are dead and 73 are missing.
“Let us not forget that the (statue of the) Virgin Mary made the journey from Trapani to La Goulette a hundred years ago, where she was so well received and respected,” Archbishop Ilario stressed. This procession aims to “show that La Goulette and Tunisia are a model of coexistence between religions” and countries of origin, according to him.
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