(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass on Wednesday at Mexico’s northern border, and spoke of the thousands of migrants who have died trying to reach the United States.
As Veronica Scarisbrick reports he appealed for governments to open their hearts, if not their borders, to the ‘human tragedy that is forced migration’ and he implored: `No more death! No more exploitation!’
Listen :
Ciudad Juarez in northern Mexico would appear to be on the “wrong side of the border”.It’s here that thousands of immigrants, today mostly from Central America, attempt to cross over to ‘El Norte’, on the “right side of the border” fleeing from extreme poverty and violence in search of a better future.
Curious how in this land of contrasts this desolate border rife with unspeakable violence, with its chain link fence (the largest economic divide in the world) for some is a symbol of hope.
It’s here that Pope Francis in the course of his last homily in Mexico during Holy Mass on Wednesday 17th of February highlighted the plight of thousands of migrants who reach here by train or on foot, journeying for hundreds of kilometres across mountains, deserts and inhospitable zones.
Upon his arrival at the venue for the mass Pope Francis had knelt by a giant great black cross planted high by the banks of the ‘Rio Grande’, on the border with the United States. It was a moving moment in this place by the chain link fence where so many have lost their lives attempting to cross over. And the Pope symbolically blessed a pair of worn shoes and a pair of worn sandals placed there for the occasion. And then stood for a moment looking out towards the United States where the crowds pressed against the chain link fence waved from across the river.
And in his homily Francis had powerful words: “No more death! No more exploitation! It’s not too late for change, for a way out, a time to implore the mercy of God. In this Year of Mercy, with you here, I beg for God’s mercy”, Pope Francis insisted, “With you I wish to plead for the gift of tears, the gift of conversion”.
And then he went on to highlight how the human tragedy that is forced migration is a global phenomenon today. This crisis he said: “which can be measured in numbers and statistics, should be measured instead 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. Young people are “cannon fodder”, persecuted and threatened when they try to flee the spiral of violence and the hell hole of drugs. And what can we say about all the women who have been killed here”…
On this occasion in Ciudad Juarez Pope Francis also mentioned the commitment of those who work on the front lines, often at the risk of their lives in an effort to support the rights of migrants describing them as prophets of mercy.
It is a time for conversion, Pope Francis insisted, a time for conversion, a time for salvation, a time for mercy.
With Pope Francis in Mexico, I’m Veronica Scarisbrick
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has thanked the people of Mexico for having made possible his apostolic visit.
At a brief farewell ceremony at the fairgrounds in Juárez City where he had just celebrated Holy Mass, and before travelling to the International Airport at the conclusion of his six-day journey, the Pope thanked the great Mexican family for having opened the doors of their lives and of their nation.
He also quoted the Mexican writer, Octavio Paz, and entrusted the Mexican people to the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Please find below the translation of the full text of the Pope’s farewell greeting:
Dear Bishop José Guadalupe Torres Campos of Juárez City,
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,
Your Excellencies,
Dear friends,
Thank you very much, Your Excellency, for your kind words of farewell. Now is the moment to give thanks to Our Lord for having granted me this visit to Mexico.
I do not want to leave without giving thanks for the efforts of all who made this pilgrimage possible. I thank all the state and local authorities for your attention and solicitous assistance that have contributed to the smooth running of this pastoral visit just as I also thank wholeheartedly those who have offered their contribution in different ways. To all those anonymous helpers who quietly gave of their very best to make these days a great family celebration: thank you. I have felt welcomed and warmly received by the love, the celebration, the hope of this great Mexican family: thank you for having opened the doors of your lives to me, the doors of your nation.
The Mexican writer Octavio Paz says in his poem Hermandad:
“I am a man: I only last a brief while, and the night is vast.
But I look up: the stars are writing.
Without grasping I understand: I am also the writing
and in this very instant someone is spelling me out”
(Un sol más vivo. Antología poética, Ed. Era, México 2014, 268).
Taking up these beautiful words, I dare to suggest that the one who spells us out and marks out the road for us is the mysterious but real presence of God in the real flesh of all people, especially the poorest and most needy of Mexico.
The night can seem vast and very dark, but in these days I have been able to observe that in this people there are many lights who proclaim hope; I have been able to see in many of their testimonies, in many of their faces, the presence of God who carries on walking in this land, guiding you, sustaining hope; many men and women, with their everyday efforts, make it possible for this Mexican society not to be left in darkness. They are tomorrow’s prophets, they are the sign of a new dawn.
May Mary, Mother of Guadalupe, continue to visit you, continue to walk on your lands, helping you to be missionaries and witnesses of mercy and reconciliation.
Once again, thank you very much.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(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)…