Pope Leo visits Lampedusa, migrant hotspot, on July 4

With his visit to Lampedusa, Leo also symbolically took up the mantle of his predecessor, who placed migration at the center of his pontificate by visiting the island in July 2013, just four months after his election and in his first trip outside Rome.

It took Leo 14 months after his own election to get to Lampedusa, but he has repeatedly spoken forcefully about the Christian obligation to care for migrants. At the height of nationwide raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the United States, Leo said the treatment of migrants there was "inhuman." Last month, during a visit to Spain's Canary Islands, he said the church "cannot be silent" about migrants who perish in the Atlantic Ocean while trying to reach Europe from Africa.

After arriving in Lampedusa, Leo visited a cemetery where migrants, including children, who died attempting to reach the island are buried. Kneeling before one of the graves, he placed a wreath of flowers on a tomb.

He then greeted several migrants amid fierce winds that at one point blew the pope’s white skullcap from his head before visiting the "Door of Europe," a 16-foot monument on the island’s southernmost point dedicated to those who have died crossing the Mediterranean.

Addressing local civil and church officials, Leo said he had "not come to make speeches, but to celebrate the Eucharist: the supreme sign of Jesus Christ among us."

"This is a place where gestures speak more than words," he said.

At Mass, Leo said that "before any intellectual consideration or ideological conviction, the encounter with those who lie before us, stripped of everything, calls us to be close to them."

"Those who have lost their lives in this sea are victims both of decisions that were made and of decisions that were not made," the pope said, citing "indifference to the common good and corruption in their countries of origin; a global economic system that generates poverty and exclusion; fear that fuels prejudice and contempt; the belief that such problems do not concern us; the criminal calculations of those who profit from the suffering of others; the slow and difficult transition from mere emergency management to the development of comprehensive and shared policies."

Leo called on Europe to develop "a long-term strategic plan capable of receiving, protecting, supporting and integrating migrants, while at the same time assisting developing countries so that no one is forced to emigrate."

But on the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, the pope also had words for his home country.

In a letter addressed to the American people and published by the Vatican July 4, unrelated to his visit to Lampedusa, Leo wrote that "defending human life also includes welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants, whose hopes, sacrifices and contribution have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning."

"In every generation, those who have arrived seeking freedom, opportunity and a place to belong have helped to shape the nation’s character," he wrote. "To receive them with compassion and generosity is not only an act of charity, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human person."

The previous day, Leo addressed the American people by livestream during a ceremony honoring him with the Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. In those remarks, he again underscored the role of generations of migrants and their children who came to the United States "to play their part in shaping the future of the nation."

Although speculation continues to mount over when Leo might visit the United States, the Vatican has said that there will be no homecoming for the U.S.-born pope this year.