(Vatican Radio) The number of Pope Francis’ followers on his @Pontifex Twitter account in 9 languages climbed above 27 million during his visit to Mexico. The most popular language is Spanish with 11,146,700 followers, the second is English with 8,680,000 and the third is Italian with 3,365,500. The other languages in order of popularity are Portuguese, Polish, French, Latin, German and Arabic.
Pope Benedict launched the @Pontifex account on the 12th of December 2012 whilst Pope Francis sent his first tweet on the 17th of March 2013.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis stopped at the Archbasilica of Saint Mary Major after arriving in Rome from Mexico on Thursday afternoon. His plane landed at Rome’s Ciampino Airport, and the Holy Father went by car to the Basilica, before returning to the Vatican.
During his brief visit to the Church, Pope Francis placed a bouquet of flowers in front of the Marian Icon, Salus Populi Romani. The Holy Father always venerates the icon before and after his international apostolic trips.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) As per tradition, Pope Francis has sent telegrams to the heads of state of the countries his plane flew over on Thursday, as he returned to Rome from his Apostolic Journey to Mexico .
He overflew Mexico, the United States, Canada, Iceland, Ireland, France, and Italy, sending each head of state cordial greetings and invoking upon them ‘abundant divine blessings’.
The full text of the telegrams is below:
MEXICO
HIS EXCELLENCY ENRIQUE PENA NIETO
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED MEXICAN STATES
MEXICO CITY
AS I DEPART FROM MEXICO, I EXTEND TO YOU, THE GOVERNMENT AND ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE NATION MY HEARTFELT GRATITUDE FOR YOUR WARM WELCOME AND EVERY KINDNESS SHOWN TO ME DURING MY VISIT. I RENEW TO YOUR EXCELLENCY AND THE ENTIRE COUNTRY THE ASSURANCE OF MY PRAYERS FOR PEACE AND UNITY.
FRANCIS PP
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE HONORABLE BARACK H. OBAMA
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
WASHINGTON
I EXTEND CORDIAL GREETINGS TO YOU AS I FLY OVER THE COUNTRY ON MY WAY HOME FROM MEXICO. RENEWING THE ASSURANCE OF MY PRAYERS FOR YOU AND ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, I INVOKE UPON YOU ABUNDANT DIVINE BLESSINGS.
FRANCIS PP
CANADA
HIS EXCELLENCY DAVID JOHNSTON
GOVERNOR GENERAL OF CANADA
OTTAWA
I SEND CORDIAL GREETINGS TO YOUR EXCELLENCY AS I FLY OVER CANADA ON MY WAY FROM MEXICO TO THE VATICAN. I ASSURE YOU OF MY PRAYERS FOR YOU AND ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE NATION, INVOKING UPON YOU ABUNDANT DIVINE BLESSINGS.
FRANCIS PP
ICELAND
HIS EXCELLENCY OLAFUR RAGNAR GRIMSSON
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ICELAND
REYKJAVIK
I SEND CORDIAL GREETINGS TO YOUR EXCELLENCY AS I FLY OVER ICELAND ON MY WAY FROM MEXICO TO THE VATICAN. I ASSURE YOU OF MY PRAYERS FOR YOU AND ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE NATION, INVOKING UPON YOU ABUNDANT DIVINE BLESSINGS.
FRANCIS PP
IRELAND
HIS EXCELLENCY MICHAEL D. HIGGINS
PRESIDENT OF IRELAND
DUBLIN
I SEND CORDIAL GREETINGS TO YOUR EXCELLENCY AS I FLY OVER IRELAND ON MY WAY FROM MEXICO TO THE VATICAN. I ASSURE YOU OF MY PRAYERS FOR ALL THE BELOVED PEOPLE OF IRELAND, INVOKING UPON YOU ABUNDANT DIVINE BLESSINGS.
FRANCIS PP
FRANCE
HIS EXCELLENCY FRANCOIS HOLLANDE
PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
PARIS
I SEND CORDIAL GREETINGS TO YOUR EXCELLENCY AS I FLY OVER FRANCE ON MY WAY FROM MEXICO TO THE VATICAN. I ASSURE YOU OF MY PRAYERS FOR YOU AND ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE REPUBLIC, AND I INVOKE UPON YOU ABUNDANT DIVINE BLESSINGS.
FRANCIS PP
ITALY
A SUA ECCELLENZA
ON. SERGIO MATTARELLA
PRESIDENTE DELLA REPUBBLICA ITALIANA
PALAZZO DEL QUIRINALE 00187 ROMA
AL RIENTRO DAL VIAGGIO APOSTOLICO IN MESSICO, DOVE HO POTUTO INCONTRARE NUMEROSI FEDELI E RAPPRESENTANTI DI QUELLE CARE POPOLAZIONI AMMIRANDONE LA FEDE E IL DESIDERIO DI CRESCITA SPIRITUALE E SOCIALE, ESPRIMO A LEI, SIGNOR PRESIDENTE, IL MIO CORDIALE SALUTO ED ASSICURO UNA SPECIALE PREGHIERA PER IL BENE, LA SERENITA’ E LA PROSPERITA’ DELLA DILETTA NAZIONE ITALIANA, ALLA QUALE INVIO LA MIA AFFETTUOSA BENEDIZIONE
FRANCISCUS PP.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis stopped for a moment of silent prayer and blessing Wednesday at Mexico’s border with the United States to recall the dramatic plight of migrants who’ve died or been arrested trying to cross illegally into their northern neighbor. Ciudad Juarez, just across from El Paso, Texas, was the last venue of the Pope’s six day pastoral visit to Mexico.
An industrial city wracked by drug violence, Ciudad Juarez is a popular crossing for Mexicans and Central Americans who try to pass into the U.S. illegally.
Standing in reflection just a stone’s throw away from the Rio Grande which separates Mexico from the U.S., the pontiff laid a wreath and blessed three small crosses which will be sent to the dioceses of El Paso, Ciudad Juarez and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Several pair of shoes of migrants who have died were laid beside them.
Before heading home to Rome, Pope Francis said, “We cannot deny the humanitarian crisis…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 trafficking in human beings.”
“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. Then there are the many women unjustly robbed of their lives.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
Vatican City, 17 February 2016 (VIS) – Yesterday at 10 a.m. local time (6 p.m. in Rome) the Holy Father began the last leg of his apostolic trip in Mexico: Ciudad Juarez, for two centuries the only land passage to the United States. Indeed, Cuidad Juarez is situated on the Rio Grande, facing the Texan city of El Paso. The two form a metropolitan area with two million inhabitants. It is a very developed industrial centre and, according to various statistics, one of the most violent cities in the world, due principally to drug trafficking across the border with the United States. It also has around 950 armed gangs with tens of thousands of members, and is home to hundreds of Mexican gang members deported from the United States. During the last four years of the drugs war, 212,000 inhabitants – or around 18 per cent of the population – abandoned the city. Ciudad Juarez is sadly renowned for the disappearance of thousands of women, typically from poor families, who worked in the maquiladoras (clandestine factories). The theme of the abduction and murder of these women has featured in literature and cinema, and various associations have been established to defend women, including “Nuestras hijas de regreso a casa” (“Bring our daughters back home”). The Holy Father began his day in Ciudad Juarez with a visit to the CeReSo 3 penitentiary, which formed part of a project for the requalification of the penal institutions of the State of Chihuahua, and has been awarded for its observance of international norms in the field. It houses three thousand detainees including a limited number of women. Upon arrival Francis greeted the families of some of the inmates, and proceeded to the chapel where he was awaited by staff and the priests of the penitentiary’s pastoral service, to whom he addressed some words of thanks for their work. “You encounter much fragility. Therefore I would like to offer you this fragile image”, he said, referring to the crystal crucifix he gave to the Centre to commemorate his visit. “Crystal is fragile, it breaks easily. Christ on the Cross represents the greatest fragility of humanity; however it is this fragility that saves us, that helps us, that enables us to keep going and opens the doors of hope. It is my wish that each one of you, with the blessing of the Virgin and contemplating the fragility of Christ Who died to save us, sowing seeds of hope and resurrection”. He was awaited in the Centre’s main courtyard by seven hundred detainees, of whom he greeted around fifty in person. One of them gave a testimony in which he affirmed that the presence of the Holy Father was a call to mercy especially for those who had lost hope in their rehabilitation and for those who had forgotten that there are human beings in prison. Francis then addressed those present, remarking first that he could not have left “without greeting you and celebrating with you the Jubilee of Mercy”, adding that mercy “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”, he observed. “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 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. The whole rehabilitation process starts here”. “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. Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy with you means repeating this phrase that we heard a little while ago, so well expressed and with such force: ‘When they gave me my sentence ,someone said to me: do not ask the reason why you are here, but the purpose. And this ‘purpose’ keeps us going ahead; it enables us to overcome the barrier of the social deception that would have us believe that security and order are obtained only through imprisonment”. “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”. “As I say these things, I recall Jesus’ words: ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone’. I should leave now … in saying these things to you, I do not do so as if I were in the pulpit, wagging my finger; I do so on the basis of the experience of my own wounds, errors and sins that the Lord has wished to forgive and re-educate. I do so on the basis of the knowledge that, without His grace and my vigilance, I could easily repeat them. Brothers, I always ask myself, as I enter a prison, ‘Why them and not me?’. And it is a mystery of divine mercy. But we all celebrating this divine mercy today, looking ahead with hope”. Finally, the Pope addressed all the staff and those who undertake any type of work that brings them into contact with inmates, urging them to remember their potential to be “signs of the heart of the Father”, and adding, “We need one another; as our sister said to us, recalling the Letter to the Hebrews: let us feel we are imprisoned alongside them”. Before giving his blessing, he invited those present to pray a moment in silence: “Each one knows what he wants to say to the Lord; each person knows what he wants to be forgiven for. But I ask you, in this silent prayer, let us open our hearts to be able to forgive the society that has not been able to help us and that has often led us to err. From the depths of our hearts, may each one of us ask God to help us believe in his mercy”….