Vatican City, 17 February 2016 (VIS) – “I wanted to meet with you here in this land of Juarez, 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. And there are two words that I want to underline: dialogue and encounter. Never tire of pursuing dialogue. Wars gradually come about due to a lack of talking and encounter”. The Holy Father addressed these words to representatives of the world of work, businesspeople and workers, whom he encountered at the Colegio de Bachilleres of the State of Chihuahua in Ciudad Juarez at midday yesterday (8 p.m. in Rome). “Obviously more needs to be done than dialogue and encounter, but today we do not have the luxury of missing any chance to encounter, any chance to discuss, confront or explore. 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’ organisations 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 – many cases – this lack of opportunity leads to situations of poverty and rejection. This poverty and rejection then becomes the best breeding ground for the young to fall into the cycle of drug trafficking and violence. It is a luxury which today we cannot afford; we cannot allow the present and future of Mexico to be isolated and abandoned. And for this to happen, dialogue, speaking face to face, and work opportunities are needed to help forge a constructive path ahead”. “Unfortunately, the times we live in have imposed the paradigm of economic utility as the starting point for personal relationships. The prevailing mentality, everywhere, 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, discarded and thrown out. God will hold us accountable for the slavery 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. For this reason I liked that aspiration which was expressed through dialogue, talking face to face”. Francis observed that, when faced with tenets of the Social Doctrine of the Church, it is frequently objected that “‘these teachings would have us be charitable organisations or transform our businesses into philanthropic institutions’. We have heard this criticism. 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. And this Social Doctrine of the Church 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?”, the Holy Father asked. “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, of trafficking in slave labour? Or do you want to leave them a culture which recalls dignified labour, proper lodging, and land to be worked? The three ‘L’s’: Labour, Lodging, Land. 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 – and the word is crucial – generating alternatives, renewal and change? To generate is to be co-creators with God. This, naturally, involves much effort”. “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. An old manager of labourers, a very honest man, who left this world having earned every penny due to him and who never took advantage of others, once said to me: ‘Each time we had to sit down at the negotiating table, I knew that I had to lose something in order to make us all win something’. This is a good philosophy coming from the world of labour. 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. Slaves. 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 at the service of profit and capital, this has a name: it is called exclusion, and through it the throwaway culture gets stronger and stronger. Throwaway and exclusion”. Recalling the testimony of one of the young people in the Morelia Stadium, who had remarked that “this world robs us of the capacity to dream”, Francis urged “dialogue, speaking face to face, negotiating, and losing out at times so that all can win. I invite you to dream of a 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 St. Juan Diego, and revealed how the seemingly abandoned were her privileged witnesses, help you all, whatever your profession, whatever your work, to take up this task of dialogue, face to face discussion, and encounter”….
Vatican City, 17 February 2016 (VIS) – “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”, exclaimed the Pope yesterday during the Mass celebrated in the fair ground of Ciudad Juarez, on the frontier between Mexico and the United States. The Holy Father toured the area several times in the popemobile to greet the faithful gathered on both sides of the border. Awareness of violence, injustice and oppression, the need for conversion and mercy, the “human tragedy” of forced migration to which this metropolis bears witness, the scars of the illegal drugs trade and human trafficking, and at the same time the possibility of changing this situation, were the main points of the Holy Father’s homily. He began with St. Irenaeus’ celebrated assertion that “the glory of God is the life of man”, an expression that 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’. Go and help them to understand that by the way they treat each other, ordering and organising 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 goodness of each person, even though it may be dormant and numbed. 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. It is the mystery of God our Father: He sends his Son who pierced into what was evil, He made himself sin in order to transform evil. This is his mercy”. “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 and 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 sensitise our gaze and our attitude, which are hardened and dormant in the face of another’s suffering. They are the tears that can break us, capable of opening us to conversion. This is what happened to Peter after having denied Jesus; he cried and those tears opened his heart”. “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 trafficking, the trafficking of persons”. “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 all these forms of violence. Injustice is radicalised in the young; they are “cannon fodder”, persecuted and threatened when they try to flee the spiral of violence and the hell of drugs. And what can we say about the many women whose lives have been unjustly robbed?” “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 always time to change, always a way out and always an opportunity, there is always the 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 organisations 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 her 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”. “And now I also want to greet from here all our beloved brothers and sisters who are joining us simultaneously from the other side of the frontier, especially those who are gathered in the Stadium of the University of El Paso, known as The Sun Bowl. … Thanks to technology, we can pray, sing and celebrate together that merciful love which God gives us, and which no frontier can prevent us from sharing. Thank you, brothers and sisters of El Paso, for making us feel one single family and one same Christian community”….
Vatican City, 17 February 2016 (VIS) – Pope Francis took leave of Mexico today, thanking God for granting him his visit to a country “that always surprises, for Mexico is a surprise!”. He departed from the airport of Ciudad Juarez at 7 p.m. local time (3 a.m. in Rome) today, 18 February, and is expected to arrive in Rome at 3.15 p.m. The Holy Father again gave thanks to all those who made his pilgrimage possible, including the state and local authorities and “all those anonymous helpers who quietly gave of their very best to make these days a great family celebration”. “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”, he added, then reciting the words of Octavio Paz 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”. “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 Pontiff commented. “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 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. Many men and women lining the streets as I went by, lifted up their children, showing them to me: they are the future of Mexico, let us look after them, let us love them. These children are tomorrow’s prophets, they are the sign of a new dawn. And I assure you that on some occasions, as I passed by, I felt I wanted to cry on seeing so much hope among people who suffer so much”. “May Mary, Mother of Guadalupe, continue to visit you, continue to walk on your lands – Mexico which cannot be understood without her – may she continue helping you to be missionaries and witnesses of mercy and reconciliation”, he concluded. “Once again, thank you very much for this warm, so very warm, Mexican hospitality”….
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday evening departed from Ciudad Juarez at the end of his Apostolic Journey to Mexico.
The Holy Father finished his visit much as he began: with a prayer to the Virgin of Guadalupe for the Mexican people. “May Mary, Mother of Guadalupe, continue to walk on your lands, helping you to be missionaries and witnesses of mercy and reconciliation .”
Veronica Scarisbrick was in Mexico with Pope Francis and sent us this report on the conclusion of the Pope’s visit :
Listen to the report:
The people of Mexico are certainly not used to wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Or not anyway when it comes to Pope Francis. And as he came to their nation as ‘a messenger of peace’ they opened up their hearts and lifted up their faces towards him.
And he was grateful, struck by their love for him, by their joy, by their constant request that he bless them, expressing in private his wonder at their disinterested affection.
In turn he was giving with the Mexican people. In a special way with those on the margins of society.
In this land of contrasts where religiosity and popular piety run deep and where helpless violence reigns he had come for almost a week to walk ‘through the peripheries with them’, the people of Mexico.
And as he departed he said: “Thank you for having opened the doors of your lives to me, the doors of your nation”.
And then Francis quoted from a poem by Nobel laureate Octavio Paz by the title of ‘Brotherhood’. One where this Mexican poet speaks of the vastness of the night, of how if we look up to the skies: the stars hold a written message, one we too are part of. One which is spelt out for us”.
And Francis commented: ‘I dare to suggest that the one who spells out this message for us and indicates a path for us to follow is the mysterious but real presence of God, in the real flesh of all people especially the poorest and most needy” .
Throughout his six days in Mexico Pope Francis has, as a man of God, during this Year of Mercy, visited places where most people fear to tread. From the sprawling lawless ‘barrio bravo’ of Ecatepec where desperate people alleviate their pain by painting colour on to their miserable homes, to Mexico City’s hospital for gravely sick children, to Chiapas were indigenous people have suffered abuse and to whom he asked forgiveness for the Church’s wrongs of the past, to chillingly drug ridden Michoacán where young people are caught in a web of despair, to Ciudad Juarez where he met with the inmates of a high security prison and with immigrants with their dashed dreams.
But he had a message for the men and women of God in this nation as well. To them he expressed the wish that: “Mexican people might find, reflected in their faces, the Lord, the presence of God”. And on another occasion invited them not to be tempted by resignation in the face of ‘paralyzing injustice”.
And upon his departure Pope Francis said to the people of Mexico, nights here can seem vast and filled with great darkness. Despite this, he added, in many of your faces I have encountered the presence of God.
God who carries on walking in this land, guiding you, sustaining you in hope. Many of you with your daily efforts make it possible for Mexican society not to be shrouded in darkness. You are tomorrow’s prophets; you are the sign of a new dawn.
Pope Francis’ visit here has surely provided Mexicans with a cone of light from the skies in the midst of a sea of darkness.
But like his first words here in Mexico , his last were dedicated to the Mother of the nation, ‘Our Lady of Guadalupe’.
Already upon his arrival in Mexico Pope Francis had quoted ‘Octavio Paz’ who once described Guadalupe, the spiritual heart of the nation, as a place of rest where people orphaned and disinherited, might seek a place of refuge, a home.
And as Pope Francis bade farewell to Mexico he said: ”May Mary, Mother of Guadalupe, continue to walk on your lands, helping you to be missionaries and witnesses of mercy and reconciliation “.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis concluded his Apostolic Visit to Mexico on Wednesday, thanking the Mexican people for their welcome .
The Aeromexico Boeing that is bringing Pope Francis back to the Vatican at the end of his 12th Apostolic Journey abroad has taken off from the International Airoport of Ciudad Juarez.
And it was the Mexican airline that flew him throughout his visit during which he travelled from Mexico City to Chiapas, Morelia, and Chihuahua.
As reported on the airline webpage, Pope Francis is an easy passenger: “Known for his humility and simple taste, very few special accommodations have been made to welcome the Pope onboard. Meal service has been arranged with suggestions from the Vatican, and the Boeing Dreamliner 787 has been equipped to host an onboard press conference. True to his reputation, the Pope has very humble needs for a head of state”.
Pope Francis is the third Pope to be flown by Mexico’s oldest airline, after Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
He is scheduled to touch down at Rome’s Ciampino Airport on Thursday, 18 February, in the afternoon.
(from Vatican Radio)…