Like every year, a mass in honor of those lost at sea took place at the Saint-Pierre Saint-Paul Church in Calais. A ceremony which particularly resonates in the news as at least 16 migrants have lost their lives in the Channel since January 1, 2024.
Moved faces and a particularly solemn ceremony took place in the Saint-Pierre Saint-Paul church in Calais. Dozens of people crowd the benches. The building seems almost too small. Today, according to Calaisian custom, those lost at sea are in the spotlight as they are every year at the time of Ascension. More than a religious tradition, “a duty to remember” for this Calaisian, in his sixties, with a full beard and the air of an old sea dog. “I am the descendant from a family of sailors, paternal and maternal side. So yes, I have had loved ones die at sea,” the man testifies.
Like an echo, the priest’s prayer resonates in the Church: “You know how much the sea brings life but also death. We pray to you for all those who have perished at sea.” Long moments of contemplation before the priest orders the faithful to return to the port. The procession passes at the foot of the lighthouse. The service continues on the quays and the sea is blessed. Flowers are thrown as offerings in memory of the deceased. In thoughts: fishermen, boaters and the memory of maritime tragedies.
If in recent years accidents have been rarer among Calais residents, another population is now regularly victim of the sea. Two weeks ago, five migrants drowned off the coast of Wimereux while trying to reach England on a boat. of overloaded fortune. One more drama.
Read >>> 5 migrants dead off the coast of Wimereux: 112 people in a single boat, from “never seen”
Since January 1, 2024, at least 16 migrants have died in such circumstances. “It concerns us very much, as a Church and as a community” insists the priest. Perhaps even more so today, where the sun and the calm sea, which rock the ceremony, provoke attempts by exiles to leave.
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Tradition of Ascension: blessing of the English Channel in Calais
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©Matthieu Rappez and Emmanuel Quinart / France Télévisions
The homily then takes on humanist impulses where the Ascension is “a bridge between one bank and the other”confusion maintained between life and death… or France and England. “NOTWe must look for ways to better support these people to save them. They are victims. We can’t block them, it won’t stop anything and it will continue the drama and sadness. Migration requires support”, analyzes the priest, Jeff Noël.
Sea rescuers in the spotlight
In the anonymous crowd, many witness this almost daily drama. “I often walked on the beach seeing canals, clothes, children’s shoes and it always moved me a lot” says this woman. Another Calaisienne, who came with her son, “to make him aware of the dangers of the sea” speaks, she “of a daily catastrophe, which saddens us enormously.” Finally, this regular at mass at the Saint-Pierre Saint-Paul Church confides that she often addresses her prayers to migrants. “We also think of them, of course, of young children in particular. And then to the rescuers.”
They too take part in the ceremony. The priest even boards an SNSM shuttle for a new blessing of the sea, this time offshore. A look towards the horizon: “the sea is beautiful and cruel at the same time”, he blurted.
The sea does not warn, it is an extremely demanding space of freedom. We must think of all sailors, and particularly the rescuers who take care of them.
Philippe Darques, president of SNSM Calais
Same observation for the president of SNSM Calais, Philippe Darques. “The sea does not warn, it is an extremely demanding space of freedom. We must think of all sailors, and particularly the rescuers who take care of them.”
A way of reminding us that off the coast of the Opal Coast, rescuing shipwrecked migrants has become the main mission of the SNSM. En 2022 “more than 500 migrants were brought back to Calais, a record year”, recalls Philippe Darques. He insists on the trauma of his teams these evenings when “They brought back dead people.”
To save, they sometimes put themselves in mortal danger. “Every year in France, comrades disappear. We are sailors, volunteers and we train but we remain affected by these deaths at sea,”concludes Philippe Darques.
