(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has decried the grave injustices perpetrated against the thousands of migrants fleeing poverty and violence and condemned the trafficking of human beings.
Celebrating Mass in Ciudad Juárez, the last public event of his Mexican visit, the Pope spoke of the global phenomenon of forced migration .
“Here in Ciudad Juárez, as in other border areas – he said – there are thousands of immigrants from Central America and other countries, not forgetting the many Mexicans who also seek to pass over “to the other side”. Each step, a journey laden with grave injustices: the enslaved, the imprisoned and extorted; so many of these brothers and sisters of ours are the consequence of a trade in human beings”.
The Pope’s homily came during a Mass in the Fair area of Juárez City filled with over 200,000 faithful.
He was also reaching out to the more than 30,000 faithful participating in the event thanks to a livestream of the ceremony being broadcast in a football stadium just across the border in the West Texas city of El Paso.
Please find below the translation of Pope Francis’ homily for the Mass at the Ciudad Juárez Fair Grounds:
In the second century Saint Irenaeus wrote that the glory of God is the life of man. It is an expression which continues to echo in the heart of the Church. The glory of the Father is the life of his sons and daughters. There is no greater glory for a father than to see his children blossom, no greater satisfaction than to see his children grow up, developing and flourishing. The first reading that we have just heard points to this. The great city of Nineveh, was self-destructing as a result of oppression and dishonour, violence and injustice. The grand capital’s days were numbered because the violence within it could not continue. Then the Lord appeared and stirred Jonah’s heart: the Father called and sent forth his messenger. Jonah was summoned to receive a mission. “Go”, he is told, because in “forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jon 3:4). Go and help them to understand that by the way they treat each other, ordering and organizing themselves, they are only creating death and destruction, suffering and oppression. Make them see this is no way to live, neither for the king nor his subjects, nor for farm fields nor for the cattle. Go and tell them that they have become used to this degrading way of life and have lost their sensitivity to pain. Go and tell them that injustice has infected their way of seeing the world. “Therefore, go Jonah!”. God sent him to testify to what was happening, he sent him to wake up a people intoxicated with themselves.
In this text we find ourselves before the mystery of divine mercy. Mercy, which always rejects wickedness, takes the human person in great earnest. Mercy always appeals to the latent and numbed goodness within each person. Far from bringing destruction, as we so often desire or want to bring about ourselves, mercy seeks to transform each situation from within. Herein lies the mystery of divine mercy. It seeks and invites us to conversion, it invites us to repentance; it invites us to see the damage being done at every level. Mercy always pierces evil in order to transform it.
The king listened to Jonah, the inhabitants of the city responded and penance was decreed. God’s mercy has entered the heart, revealing and showing wherein our certainty and hope lie: there is always the possibility of change, we still have time to transform what is destroying us as a people, what is demeaning our humanity. Mercy encourages us to look to the present, and to trust what is healthy and good beating in every heart. God’s mercy is our shield and our strength.
Jonah helped them to see, helped them to become aware. Following this, his call found men and women capable of repenting, and capable of weeping. To weep over injustice, to cry over corruption, to cry over oppression. These are tears that lead to transformation, that soften the heart; they are the tears that purify our gaze and enable us to see the cycle of sin into which very often we have sunk. They are tears that can sensitize our gaze and our attitude hardened and especially dormant in the face of another’s suffering. They are the tears that can break us, capable of opening us to conversion.
This word echoes forcefully today among us; this word is the voice crying out in the wilderness, inviting us to conversion. In this Year of Mercy, with you here, I beg for God’s mercy; with you I wish to plead for the gift of tears, the gift of conversion.
Here in Ciudad Juárez, as in other border areas, there are thousands of immigrants from Central America and other countries, not forgetting the many Mexicans who also seek to pass over “to the other side”. Each step, a journey laden with grave injustices: the enslaved, the imprisoned and extorted; so many of these brothers and sisters of ours are the consequence of a trade in human beings.
We cannot deny the humanitarian crisis which in recent years has meant migration for thousands of people, whether by train or highway or on foot, crossing hundreds of kilometres through mountains, deserts and inhospitable zones. The human tragedy that is forced migration is a global phenomenon today. This crisis which can be measured in numbers and statistics, we want instead to measure with names, stories, families. They are the brothers and sisters of those expelled by poverty and violence, by drug trafficking and criminal organizations. Being faced with so many legal vacuums, they get caught up in a web that ensnares and always destroys the poorest. Not only do they suffer poverty but they must also endure these forms of violence. Injustice is radicalized in the young; they are “cannon fodder”, persecuted and threatened when they try to flee the spiral of violence and the hell of drugs, not to mention the tragic predicament of the many women whose lives have been unjustly taken.
Let us together ask our God for the gift of conversion, the gift of tears, let us ask him to give us open hearts like the Ninevites, open to his call heard in the suffering faces of countless men and women. No more death! No more exploitation! There is still time to change, there is still a way out and a chance, time to implore the mercy of God.
Just as in Jonas’ time, so too today may we commit ourselves to conversion; may we be signs lighting the way and announcing salvation. I know of the work of countless civil organizations working to support the rights of migrants. I know too of the committed work of so many men and women religious, priests and lay people in accompanying migrants and in defending life. They are on the front lines, often risking their own lives. By their very lives they are prophets of mercy; they are the beating heart and the accompanying feet of the Church that opens its arms and sustains.
This time for conversion, this time for salvation, is the time for mercy. And so, let us say together in response to the suffering on so many faces: In your compassion and mercy, Lord, have pity on us … cleanse us from our sins and create in us a pure heart, a new spirit (cf. Ps 50).
I would like to take this occasion to send greeting from here to our dear sisters and brothers who are with us now, beyond the border, in particular those who are gathered in the University of El Paso Stadium; it’s known as the Sun Bowl, and they are led by monsignor Mark Seitz. With the help of technology, we can pray, sing and together celebrate the merciful love that the Lord gives us and that no border can stop us from sharing. Thank you brothers and sisters at El Paso of making us feel like one family and one, same, Christian community.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On the last day of his Apostolic Visit to Mexico Pope Francis travelled to the northern city of Ciudad Juárez, very close to the border with the US.
The first stop he made in Juárez was at the CeReSo n. 3 penitentiary where, speaking to some 700 prison inmates gathered to be with him, he said that he did not want to leave the country without greeting them and celebrating with them the Jubilee of Mercy.
Vatican Radio’s Veronica Scarisbrick is in Mexico with Pope Francis. She sent us this report – “Prophets from hell”:
Listen :
Pope Francis arrived in Ciudad Juárez to the notes of the popular song ‘Cielito Lindo’ and the warmth of the people of this place. Once a hell hole dubbed not so long ago, ‘the murder capital of the world’.
The sun shone and Francis climbed into the fifth pope mobile of his visit to Mexico to reach the high security prison Cereso n 3 , the Centre for Social adjustment in Ciudad Juarez which houses 3.000 inmates.
Met by the prison authorities Francis entered behind bars and made his way to the tiny white chapel which stood out starkly in the strong light against the barren mountains.
And in the chapel he prayed giving the prison a crystal crucifix, symbol of the fragility of mankind. Praying together, through a TV feed, with other prison inmates watching right across the nation.
And then a group of inmates played a tango in honour of the Argentinian Pope, they’d been practicing for months. While all the while seven hundred others, among them women ( not all Catholics) stood by in their grey track suits.
One of them , a woman, took the floor and with a voice broken with emotion, spoke of mercy and hope highlighting how vulnerable and alone inmates feel. How the prison experience can transform one’s life . May our children, she said, never repeat our experience. Thank you Pope Francis, she concluded, for being with us today for bringing us a message of hope.
And when she finished fifty of the prisoners got a chance to embrace Francis. They seemed very controlled, a few had smiles on their faces, and all the while the ‘Cereso’ band played ‘Besame mucho’.
And by the time the men started walking up, the ‘Cereso ‘ band played a tango and the last of them gave the Pope a gift: a pastoral cross they had carved in wood, one he held on to for a moment.
And then Pope Francis who had looked thoughtful throughout spoke, highlighting how there is no place, beyond the reach of mercy, no space or person it cannot touch.
Mercy, he went on to say, reminds us that reintegration does not begin here within these walls; rather it begins “outside” in the streets of the city.
Mercy Pope Francis insisted, means learning not to be prisoners of the past. It means believing that things can change. We know that we cannot turn back but I wanted to celebrate with you the Jubilee of Mercy, because it does not exclude the possibility of writing a new story and moving forward. The one who has suffered the greatest pain, he insisted, and we could say “has experienced hell”, can become a prophet in society.
With the Pope in Mexico, I’m Veronica Scarisbrick.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has called on business leaders and representatives of the Chambers of Commerce to invest in the future by creating opportunities of sustainable and profitable work for the young.
On the last day of his apostolic journey to Mexico the Pope was addressing representatives of the “world of work” gathered at an Institute for Superior Education, the Colegio de Bachilleres of the State of Chihuahua.
Please find below the translation of the Pope’s address:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I wanted to meet with you here in this land of Juárez, because of the special relationship this city has with the world of labour. I am grateful not only for your words of welcome and for your testimonies, which reveal the anxieties, joys and hopes of your lives, but also for this opportunity to share and reflect together. Anything we can do to foster dialogue, encounter, and the search for better alternatives and opportunities is already an accomplishment to be valued and highlighted. Obviously more needs to be done, and today we do not have the luxury of missing any chance to encounter, discuss, confront or search. This is the only way we will be able to build for tomorrow, to create sustainable relationships capable of providing the needed framework that, little by little, will rebuild the social bonds so damaged by a lack of communication and by a lack of the minimal respect necessary for a healthy coexistence. So I thank you, and I hope that this occasion may serve to build the future. May it be a good opportunity to forge the Mexico that its people and children deserve.
I would like to dwell on this latter point. Here today there are various workers’ organizations and representatives of Commerce Chambers and business associations. At first sight they could be considered as adversaries, but they are united by the same responsibility: seeking to create employment opportunities which are dignified and truly beneficial for society and especially for the young of this land. One of the greatest scourges for young people is the lack of opportunities for study and for sustainable and profitable work, which would permit them to work for the future. In many cases, this lack of opportunity leads to situations of poverty. This poverty then becomes the best breeding ground for the young to fall into the cycle of drug trafficking and violence. It is a luxury which no one can afford; we cannot allow the present and future of Mexico to be alone and abandoned.
Unfortunately, the times we live in have imposed the paradigm of economic utility as the starting point for personal relationships. The prevailing mentality advocates for the greatest possible profits, immediately and at any cost. This not only causes the ethical dimension of business to be lost, but it also forgets that the best investment we can make is in people, in individual persons and in families. The best investment is creating opportunities. The prevailing mentality puts the flow of people at the service of the flow of capital, resulting in many cases in the exploitation of employees as if they were objects to be used and discarded (cf. Laudato Si’, 123). God will hold us accountable for the slaves of our day, and we must do everything to make sure that these situations do not happen again. The flow of capital cannot decide the flow and life of people.
When faced with tenets of the Church’s Social Doctrine, it is objected frequently: “These teachings would have us be charitable organizations or that we transform our businesses into philanthropic institutions”. The only aspiration of the Church’s Social Doctrine is to guard over the integrity of people and social structures. Every time that, for whatever reason, this integrity is threatened or reduced to a consumer good, the Church’s Social Doctrine will be a prophetic voice to protect us all from being lost in the seductive sea of ambition. Every time that a person’s integrity is violated, society, in a certain sense, begins to decline. This is against no one, but in favour of all. Every sector has the obligation of looking out for the good of all; we are all in the same boat. We all have to struggle to make sure that work is a humanizing moment which looks to the future; that it is a space for building up society and each person’s participation in it. This attitude not only provides an immediate improvement, but in the long run it will also transform society into a culture capable of promoting a dignified space for everyone. This culture, born many times out of tension, is creating a new style of relationships, a new kind of nation.
What kind of world do we want to leave our children? I believe that the vast majority of us can agree. This is precisely our horizon, our goal, and we have to come together and work for this. It is always good to think about what I would like to leave my children; it is also a good way to think of others’ children. What kind of Mexico do you want to leave your children? Do you want to leave them the memory of exploitation, of insufficient pay, of workplace harassment? Or do you want to leave them a culture which recalls dignified work, a proper roof, and land to be worked? What type of culture do we want for those who will come after us? What air will they breathe? An air tainted by corruption, violence, insecurity and suspicion, or, on the contrary, an air capable of generating alternatives, renewal and change?
I know that the issues raised are not easy, but it is worse to leave the future in the hands of corruption, brutality and the lack of equity. I know it is often not easy to bring all parties together in negotiations, but it is worse, and we end up doing more harm, when there is a lack of negotiations and appreciation. I know it is not easy to get along in an increasingly competitive world, but it is worse to allow the competitive world to ruin the destiny of the people. Profit and capital are not a good over and above the human person; they are at the service of the common good. When the common good is used only in the service of profit and capital, the only thing gained is known as exclusion.
I began by thanking you for this opportunity to be together. I wish now to invite you to dream of Mexico, to build the Mexico that your children deserve; a Mexico where no one is first, second, or fourth; a Mexico where each sees in the other the dignity of a child of God. May our Lady of Guadalupe, who made herself known to Juan Diego, and revealed how the seemingly abandoned were her privileged witnesses, help and accompany us in this our work.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday told prison inmates that God’s mercy embraces everyone and is found in every corner of the world.
On the last day of his Mexican pilgrimage, the Pope travelled to Ciudad Juárez, very close to the US border, where he visited inmates, their families and prison workers in the city’s Prison n. 3.
Until not long ago, Juárez was considered the murder capital of the world as cartel-backed gang warfare triggered souring homicide rates and ‘disappearances’.
To the some 700 inmates gathered in the prison courtyard, Pope Francis noted he was coming to the end of his visit to Mexico and he could not leave with greeting them and celebrating the Jubilee Year of Mercy with them.
He said that to celebrate the Holy Year of Mercy recalls “the pressing journey that we must undertake in order to break the cycle of violence and crime”.
He said that many decades have already been lost “thinking and believing that everything will be resolved by isolating, separating, incarcerating (…) and believing that these policies really solve problems”.
Pope Francis said that the care for prisoners is a moral imperative for the whole of society and that reintegration does not begin “within these walls”, but “before – outside – in the streets of the city”.
“Reintegration or rehabilitation begins by creating a system which we could call social health, that is, a society which seeks not to cause sickness, polluting relationships in neighbourhoods, schools, town squares, the streets, homes and in the whole of the social spectrum. A system of social health that endeavours to promote a culture which acts and seeks to prevent those situations and pathways that end in damaging and impairing the social fabric” he said.
And recognizing that those present have known the power of sorrow and sin and that they cannot undo what they have done , the Pope said that they must now learn to open the door to the future, to tomorrow and believe that things can change.
“ Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy with you means inviting you to lift up your heads and to work in order to gain this space of longed-for freedom” he said.
Pointing out that he who has suffered the greatest pain, “has experienced hell” can become a prophet in society, the Pope urged those present to work so that “this society which uses people and discards them will not go on claiming victims”.
He also had words of thanks and encouragement to those who work in this Centre or others like it and expressed gratitude for the efforts made by the chaplains, consecrated persons and lay faithful who have dedicated themselves to keeping alive the hope of the Gospel of Mercy in the prison.
“Never forget – he said – that all of you can be signs of the heart of the Father. We need one another to keep on moving forward”.
Please find below the full text of the Pope’s address to prison inmates at the Centre for Social Adjustment n.3 in Ciudad Juárez:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am coming to the end of my visit to Mexico, and I could not leave without greeting you and celebrating with you the Jubilee of Mercy.
I am deeply grateful for your words of welcome, which express your many hopes and aspirations, as well as your many sorrows, fears and uncertainties.
During my visit to Africa, I was able to open the door of mercy for the whole world in the city of Bangui. United to you and with you today, I want to reiterate once more the confidence that Jesus urges us to have: the mercy that embraces everyone and is found in every corner of the world. There is no place beyond the reach of his mercy, no space or person it cannot touch.
Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy with you is recalling the pressing journey that we must undertake in order to break the cycle of violence and crime. We have already lost many decades thinking and believing that everything will be resolved by isolating, separating, incarcerating, and ridding ourselves of problems, believing that these policies really solve problems. We have forgotten to focus on what must truly be our concern: people’s lives; their lives, those of their families, and those who have suffered because of this cycle of violence.
Divine Mercy reminds us that prisons are an indication of the kind of society we are. In many cases they are a sign of the silence and omissions which have led to a throwaway culture, a symptom of a culture that has stopped supporting life, of a society that has abandoned its children.
Mercy reminds us that reintegration does not begin here within these walls; rather it begins before, it begins “outside”, in the streets of the city. Reintegration or rehabilitation begins by creating a system which we could call social health, that is, a society which seeks not to cause sickness, polluting relationships in neighbourhoods, schools, town squares, the streets, homes and in the whole of the social spectrum. A system of social health that endeavours to promote a culture which acts and seeks to prevent those situations and pathways that end in damaging and impairing the social fabric.
At times it may seem that prisons are intended more to prevent people from committing crimes than to promote the process of rehabilitation that allows us to address the social, psychological and family problems which lead a person to act in a certain way. The problem of security is not resolved only by incarcerating; rather, it calls us to intervene by confronting the structural and cultural causes of insecurity that impact the entire social framework.
Jesus’ concern for the care of the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless and prisoners (cf. Mt 25:34-40) sought to express the core of the Father’s mercy. This becomes a moral imperative for the whole of society that wishes to maintain the necessary conditions for a better common life. It is within a society’s capacity to include the poor, infirm and imprisoned, that we see its ability to heal their wounds and make them builders of a peaceful coexistence. Social reintegration begins by making sure that all of our children go to school and that their families obtain dignified work by creating public spaces for leisure and recreation, and by fostering civic participation, health services and access to basic services, to name just a few possible measures.
Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy with you means learning not to be prisoners of the past, of yesterday. It means learning to open the door to the future, to tomorrow; it means believing that things can change. Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy with you means inviting you to lift up your heads and to work in order to gain this space of longed-for freedom.
We know that we cannot turn back, we know that what is done, is done. This is the way I wanted to celebrate with you the Jubilee of Mercy, because it does not exclude the possibility of writing a new story and moving forward. You suffer the pain of a failure, you feel the remorse of your actions and in many cases, with great limitations, you seek to remake your lives in the midst of solitude. You have known the power of sorrow and sin, and have not forgotten that within your reach is the power of the resurrection, the power of divine mercy which makes all things new. Now, this mercy can reach you in the hardest and most difficult of places, but such occasions can also perhaps bring truly positive results. From inside this prison, you must work hard to change the situations which create the most exclusion. Speak with your loved ones, tell them of your experiences, help them to put an end to this cycle of violence and exclusion. The one who has suffered the greatest pain, and we could say “has experienced hell”, can become a prophet in society. Work so that this society which uses people and discards them will not go on claiming victims.
I wish also to encourage those who work in this Centre or others like it: the directors, prison guards, and all who undertake any type of work in this Centre. And I am also grateful for the efforts made by the chaplains, consecrated persons and lay faithful who have dedicated themselves to keeping alive the hope of the Gospel of Mercy in the prison. Never forget that all of you can be signs of the heart of the Father. We need one another to keep on moving forward.
Before giving you my blessing, I would like for us all to pray a moment in silence. From the depths of our hearts, may each one of us ask God to help us believe in his mercy.
And I ask you, do not forget to pray for me.
(from Vatican Radio)…
“You are the wealth of this
land. Careful though! I did not say the hope of this land, but its wealth”. Thus the Pope addressed young people on Tuesday, 16
February, in José María Morellos y Pavón Stadium, Morelia. “You have asked me
for a word of hope,” he continued, “and the one word I have to give you, which
is the foundation of everything, is Jesus Christ. When everything seems too
much, when it seems that the world is crashing down on you, embrace his Cross,
draw close to him and please, never let go of his hand, even if they are
dragging you; and, if you should fall, allow him to lift you
up”. The Pope’s address …