Priest says migrants who swarmed Spanish city are ‘saints’

CEUTA, Spain (LifeSiteNews) — Father Ángel García, the founder of the Messengers of Peace, told reporters that the mass influx of migrants who illegally crossed into Spanish territory from Morocco last week are “saints.”

Speaking to reporters following a meeting with the mayor-president of the small, autonomous Spanish city of Ceuta, Fr. García called the 50,000–60,000 migrants who rushed into the Spanish territory between July 30–31 “saints,” per Spanish media. The priest went on to claim that if “we” were in their shoes we might do similar “crazy things” and downplayed the deaths caused by the migrant surge and the destruction that it wreaked throughout the city.

“If we were in their place, I think we’d do all sorts of crazy things. And here you see them—they’re calm, they’re not causing any disturbances; they’re just waiting to see if they can get into the CETI.”

While Catholic social teaching affirms that immigrants should be treated, it also notes that a country has a right to secure its borders. In the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration and the Movement of Peoples,” the conference outlines that countries are under no obligation to accept all who wish to enter.

Therefore, violating Spain’s immigration laws by surging through the border en masse would be sinful. While one might not be able to judge each individual’s culpability, they should not be considered “saints,” as the priest suggests.

The priest also heavily downplayed the disturbances and devastating impact of last week’s migrant surge for both the locals in Ceuta and the migrants themselves. During the surge, over 50,000 migrants crossed into Ceuta illegally – more than half of the city’s population – between July 30 and 31, with at least 86 people dying during the surge, mostly by drowning while trying to swim onto the Spanish shores.

READ: Horror invasion unfolding as tens of thousands of Moroccans swarm Spanish enclave

The Daily Mail reported that the situation even led to unrest, with locals taking to the streets to protest and push back the trespassers.

“Many were seen waving Spanish flags and screaming at them,” the Mail reported. “As a group of migrants were seen running away, a loud police siren was heard in the background.” The National Police union Jupol issued a statement bemoaning the “clear lack of personnel and material resources” to deal with the situation.

🚨#BREAKING: The Moroccan Muslims who have invaded the small Spanish city of Ceuta are now BREAKING INTO STORES by the HUNDREDS.

Police are completely overwhelmed.

Migrants can be seen running from one store to the next, grabbing items and running.

WHERE IS THE MILITARY?!!!!! pic.twitter.com/NjqQAI4zgD

— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) July 31, 2026

The Spanish government eventually sent troops on Friday to “reinforce the Civil Guard in the exercise of its powers and any others that may be necessary to maintain security in the city of Ceuta,” the interior ministry said, and would be working with the Moroccan government to return the migrants “as soon as possible.”

The mass border rush was so devastating that even leftist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez denounced the incident as “a violation of Spain’s territorial integrity.” Most of the migrants have since left the city voluntarily, according to officials.

Other Catholic clerics have criticized last week’s deadly migrant surge. Archbishop Luis Argüello, the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, sharply criticized the influx of illegal immigrants into Spanish territory as part of a strategy by “global powers” in which migrants are “exploited for the sake of profit and power.”

READ: Head of Spanish bishops on migrant crisis: ‘Demography is a weapon’

“Biopolitics is key to current global power. Life is toyed with, and people – their dreams, hunger, sexuality, and data – are exploited for the sake of profit and power,” Argüello wrote Sunday on X.

Father Javier Aizpún, a priest in the Archdiocese of Pamplona and Tudela, responded to the surge by calling for a “Reconquista” of Morocco to Catholicism.