What does the red and white cross of Cardinal Czerny, Vatican authority, mean?

Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development at the Vatican, explained what his symbolic red and white pectoral cross means.

“My cross comes from a boat of refugees who were fleeing North Africa towards Lampedusa, the Italian island,” the cardinal said in brief statements to Paola Arriaza from EWTN’s Rome office.

“They made a one-way trip, some of them arrived, some didn’t,” he added.

“The cross comes from the wood of the boat and the red part represents suffering, blood. The nail is the most striking part that reminds us of the cross of Christ and the clearest part is already a sign of resurrection, which is the hope of all in Christ who make this dangerous journey of life,” the cardinal highlighted.

Cardinal Czerny further highlighted that “the nail is probably what everyone remembers, which reminds us that the cross (of Christ) had real nails, and represents, with the color red, suffering and bloodshed, “It is close to the desperation of the people who try to cross the Mediterranean.”

The clear part of the cross also “gives us hope that the cross of Christ wins in the struggles of this world,” the Jesuit cardinal stressed.

Pope Francis visited the island of Lampedusa on July 8, 2013, a place where many immigrants have arrived and in whose waters many of them found death. There he threw a wreath of flowers into the sea in memory of the deceased immigrants.

In his homily that day the Holy Father said that day: “Immigrants killed at sea, by those boats that, instead of having been a way of hope, have been a way of death. That’s what the newspaper headline said. Since “Some weeks ago, I learned this news, unfortunately repeated so many times, my thoughts have continually returned to it, like a thorn in the heart that causes pain.”