Because no life should ever be in vain or forgotten
On the occasion of All Saints’ Day, we invite you to a time of remembrance and commitment for those whose names risk disappearing from memory.
This summer in Ceuta and again this autumn in Calais, shipwrecks have followed one another. Women, men and children have lost their lives or gone missing during their journey. Victims of border policies, they join the long list of people whose deaths often remain anonymous, reduced to mere statistics.
At House of Compassion, we keep alive the memory of the “Unknown Drowned Person,” symbolized by a coffin that has accompanied us for several years. This year, an additional symbol will join this place of remembrance: a cross made from the wood of a migrant boat that sank off the coast of Lampedusa. This cross will be received during the All Saints’ celebration on November 1 at 10:00 a.m., led by Father Walbert, Capuchin friar of the Spirituality of Peace, and will be placed beside the coffin of the Unknown Drowned Person from November 1 to November 7.
On November 7, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., we invite you to a screening of the film Those Who Keep Watch (Ceux qui veillent) [Please add a link to the website for more information], which follows descendants of migrants from different religious backgrounds as they visit their deceased loved ones at Brussels’ multi-faith cemetery. After a shared meal of solidarity, we will then make our way together, at around 3:30 p.m., to the Church of the Finistère, where the Paulus Community will take to the streets near City 2 with a boat as part of the “A Human Tide” action.
Passers-by will be invited to place in the boat the name of a deceased or missing person: someone who died at the borders, someone who died on the streets, a missing loved one, but also a suffering people or a burned forest. From House of Compassion, we will bring the Lampedusa Cross. The names of people who died on the streets and those who died or disappeared at the borders will be read aloud publicly. Because speaking a name in the public space allows a person to continue to exist among us and finally find a place in our collective memory.
At 4:30 p.m., we will return with the boat to the church, where a celebration will take place together with the Paulus Community.
The direct and indirect violence of border regimes causes thousands of deaths and disappearances. This celebration is an act of remembrance, but also a call for justice, demanding dignity and freedom of movement.
