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The Radical Meaning of Pope Francis’s Visit to Juárez

By James Carroll

Across Mexico this week, Pope Francis spoke tenderly to masses of ordinary people and delivered blistering messages—“God will hold accountable the enslavers of our day”—to drug lords, corrupt government officials, oligarchs, and even bishops. But in Juárez on Wednesday, at the U.S.-Mexico border, he offered perhaps his most powerful statement with a simple blessing and the act of standing still. On a platform overlooking the Rio Grande, in blazing sunlight, beside crosses memorializing migrants who had died making the trek north, Francis faced the skyline of El Paso, Texas—an unreachable city for many of the thousands of Mexicans who came to see him. Unlike everything else that Francis did and said during his trip, this act was expressly addressed to the people of the United States. By looking across the river from south to north_,_ by aligning his gaze with that of the Mexican public, Francis was asking this country to think about its migrant crisis from a different point of view .

The Pope leads not by mandate but by invitation. “Let us together ask God for the gift of conversion,” he prayed at the border Mass. By “conversion,” Francis meant a change in attitude. This was a particular instance of his broad emphasis on the urgency of considering questions of the economy, climate, health, and culture from the perspective of the impoverished global majority. It is an idea that has proved unpopular with some of our current and aspiring political leaders. Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio have all, at various times, defended themselves from the implications of papal criticism by decrying this religious figure’s trespass into the political realm. Trump, when asked about the Pope’s intention to stand at the border, denigrated him as “a very political person” and a tool of the Mexican government. (On Thursday, Francis addressed Trump’s comments directly while on his way back to the Vatican. “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian,” he said. “As to whether I am a pawn, well, maybe. I don’t know. I'll leave that up to your judgment and that of the people.”) Defenders of the Pope, meanwhile, insist that, on the issue of poverty, he is properly political. But something crucial is being lost in the back-and-forth argument about the distinction between religion and politics, which is only a variant of old American quarrels about church and state.

The Pope’s standing shoulder to shoulder with a beleaguered people recapitulates the very foundation of the Biblical faith, which began, after all, in a migrant crisis like ours. In Exodus 3:7-8, God says, “I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them.” The Hebrews, understood by Pharaoh as the cause of plagues that threatened to destroy his nation, were driven out into the wilderness, where they wandered for forty years. The Hebrews of old, that is, were the first displaced persons.

The Bible tells a story of power, violence, and conquest, but—and this sets the Bible apart—it tells that story from the point of view of the victims of power, not the possessors of power. When plagues strike a country—disease, economic collapse, political anarchy, blood in the water—the country, for the purposes of social order, typically heaps its distress onto a marginal, despised minority. They become a scapegoat (a word that refers to the sacrificial goat that the Israelites, in Leviticus 16, send away in an act of atonement). Once that victim is expelled, the nation can seem to heal—which is, of course, the fantasy that Trump has, with his plan to deport eleven million undocumented immigrants. The scapegoat story is usually told by those doing the scapegoating. But the Bible, beginning with the Exodus exile, flips that narrative to affirm that God stands with those who have been cast out.

God’s solidarity with the disenfranchised is not just a function of his omnidirectional love. No, love is the concern of those at the top of the social order. Those at the bottom want not love but justice—and the Bible offers it by seeing everything from below, from south to north. Thus, when people are scapegoated and driven out, God goes with them. This is the radical vision that so-called religion has, across the millennia, sought to domesticate, or even delete. Religion has continually realigned God with the powerful, and that is the religion invoked against Francis by Trump and the others.

In the United States—decisively including the Obama Administration, which has been so ruthless about deportations—Latino migrants are the paradigmatic scapegoat of the moment. (In Europe, the scapegoated people are Muslims, and Francis has stood with them, too.) His presence at the border in Juárez may have special resonance because he is the first Latin American Pope, but his stance transcends personal identity, just as it transcends politics and religion. He is offering neither an explicit critique of U.S. immigration policy nor a solution to the many dilemmas that bedevil its reform. He is simply suggesting that there is another point of view that must be reckoned with. Standing at the Rio Grande with Mexicans, Pope Francis was only being Biblical.

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Pope Francis, the first pontiff to hail from the Americas, is wrapping up a six-day swing through Mexico, the second-most-populous Catholic nation. He has designed his trip to hit many of the major stops migrants make on their way north to the Mexico-US border. From the state of Chiapas, where Central Americans first arrive in Mexico; through Michoacán, a source of Mexican immigrants to the US fleeing from intense gang violence; and finally to Ciudad Juárez, a gateway city that hugs the border.

In case you haven’t been following along, here are a few key moments from his trip, highlighting the unique focus on social justice this pope has taken.

The pope visited an indigenous church in southern Mexico, breaking with Vatican tradition

During one of the early stops of his trip, Pope Francis visited the southern state of Chiapas, a state with a heavily indigenous population. The region’s churches blend Catholicism with elements of Mayan spirituality, such as the use of pine boughs and eggs, into a Mass that the Catholic Church has long bristled at.

But not so with Francis, who presented one of these churches with a decree authorizing the use of indigenous languages during Mass.

"I ask you to show singular tenderness in the way you regard indigenous peoples and their fascinating but not infrequently decimated cultures,’’ Francis told Mexico’s bishops ahead of the visit.

The pope told children: Jesus does not want you to be "hit men"

Midway through his trip, Pope Francis traveled to the western state of Michoacán, which in recent years has been ravaged by gang wars over the methamphetamine trade. While there, during a stop at a stadium in the state’s capital city, Morelia, the pope implored young people to resist the allure of easy money by joining the drug trade.

"It is a lie to believe that the only way to live, or to be young, is to entrust oneself to drug dealers or others who do nothing but sow destruction and death," he told the crowd. "Jesus would never ask us to be hit men."

His plea struck an uncomfortable tone — most Mexican children don’t choose gang violence, but some are forced into it because of devastating poverty and crippling social pressure. But during the same speech, Francis took a swipe at Mexican authorities for failing to better provide young people with employment or other basic services.

"It is hard to feel the wealth of a nation when there are no opportunities for dignified work, no possibilities for study or advancement, when you feel your rights are being trampled on, which then leads you to extreme situations," he said.

The pope lost his cool after someone tripped him in a crowd

For a pope who has made something of a brand of his everyman lifestyle, this mishap overshadowed the overarching tenor of his trip. Francis was making his way through a crowd of greeters after his speech in Morelia when a man grabbed his hand and did not let go. The clinging worshiper ended up knocking the pope down — onto a young woman using a wheelchair.

Pope Francis regained his balance with the help of a security guard, but the look on his face was fierce.

"No seas egoista! No seas egoista! [Don't be selfish! Don't be selfish!]" a video caught Pope Francis loudly scolding the overeager worshiper.

The pope visited a prison

The last stop on Francis’s six-day swing brought him to Ciudad Juárez, a border city in the north directly across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. Francis paid a visit to Cereso state prison No. 3, where he addressed a group of 760 inmates chosen to participate in the event.

Though Francis has visited prisons in the past, the location of this visit was particularly potent: From 2008 to 2010, Ciudad Juárez had the highest rate of murders of any city in the world. Many of the city’s residents are still reeling from a spate of gang violence and murders of women that kept many too frightened to leave their homes.

"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," he told the inmates during their gathering. He urged them to help make Mexico a place where it is safe "to dream," in the hopes that one day, so many Mexicans wouldn’t feel the urgency to flee north.

The pope will celebrate Mass on the US-Mexico border

While in Ciudad Juárez, Pope Francis will also celebrate Mass at a spot hardly 300 feet from the fence marking the US-Mexico border, and will walk right up to its edge in a potent political statement.

While there, he is expected to pray for asylum seekers in the United States and give a blessing for those who died trying.

The pope’s Mass will be simulcast in El Paso, though more than 200,000 people are expected to cross the border to witness the real thing in Mexico.

Francis has made the plight of migrants a centerpiece of his papacy, most prominently urging European leaders to take in migrants displaced from their homes in the Middle East and Africa. On this trip, the pope has spoken for the need to end drug violence driving people to head north without authorization.

It’s a message that hasn’t resonated well with Republicans in the US, who see securing the border as a top priority and who are irritated that the pope mentioned the border in a political context during his speech to Congress in September.

In response to claims from Donald Trump that the pope was bribed to make the visit by the Mexican government, the Vatican said in a statement, "The pope always talks about migration problems all around the world, of the duties we have to solve these problems in a humane manner, of hosting those who come from other countries in search of a life of dignity and peace."

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Mariachis and ‘Cielito Lindo’ welcome Pope Francis to Mexico City

Pope Francis rides through the crowd at El Punto fairgrounds in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

People stand quietly on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico near Ciudad Juarez on Wednesday as Pope Francis says a prayer during the final day of his trip to Mexico.

Pope Francis rides through the crowd Wednesday as El Paso, Texas, looms in the background at El Punto fairgrounds in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

People react as Pope Francis prays Wednesday in support of migrants from a cross-shaped altar looking over the Rio Grande toward El Paso, Texas, at El Punto fairgrounds in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Pope Francis rides through a crowd of pilgrims at El Punto fairgrounds in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

A woman wipes perspiration from her check Wednesday while waiting for Pope Francis to arrive to celebrate Mass at El Punto fairgrounds in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Pope Francis stands near the U.S. border on a platform on the banks of the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday.

Pilgrims wait in the harsh sunlight for Pope Francis to arrive Wednesday to celebrate Mass at El Punto fairgrounds in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

A woman prays before Pope Francis arrives Wednesday to celebrate Mass at El Punto fairgrounds in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Msgr. James Brownfield gives communion at the levee in El Paso, Texas, near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday during a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis on the Mexican side of the border.

People pray quietly on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico on Wednesday as Pope Francis says a prayer during the final day of his trip to Mexico.

Bert Dunn of El Paso, Texas, prays on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday as Pope Francis celebrates Mass.

Bishops look across the Rio Grande toward the altar in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where Pope Francis celebrated a Mass on Wednesday.

Maria de Lourdes Molina Garcia reunites Tuesday with her children, Iris, right, and Luis Hipolito at the Abraham Gonzalez International Airport in Ciudad Juarez during Pope Francis’ visit to Mexico. Luis and Iris live in Los Angeles, separated from their mother, who lives in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Prayers are offered as Pope Francis meets with young people in Morelia in Mexico’s Michoacan state on Tuesday.

Pope Francis watches young people perform in Morelia in Mexico’s Michoacan state on Tuesday.

People carry crosses as Pope Francis meets with young people in Morelia in Mexico’s Michoacan state on Tuesday.

Pope Francis greets two young people with Down syndrome in Morelia in Mexico’s Michoacan state on Tuesday.

Traditional dancers perform for Pope Francis as he meets with young people in Morelia, Mexico, on Tuesday.

A women prays along the Pope’s route near the cathedral in Morelia, Michoacan.

People stake out spots at dawn near the cathedral to see the Pope arrive in Morelia, Michoacan.

A woman finds a quiet spot to sit in the early morning hours near the cathedral to see the Pope arrive in Morelia.

Indigenous pilgrims wave to Pope Francis who flies overhead as he arrives by helicopter to conduct a Mass in San Cristobal de las Casas, in Mexico’s southern Chiapas state.

Nuns in the square at the Morelia Cathedral as preparations continue for Pope Francis’ arrival in Morelia, Michoacan.

After a Mass that included several Mayan languages, Pope Francis is driven through San Cristobal de las Casas in southern Mexico.

Selfies are taken in front of the Morelia Cathedral as preparations continue for Pope Francis’ arrival in Morelia, Michoacan.

Young men are camped out across the street from the Morelia Cathedral as preparations continue for Pope Francis’ arrival in Morelia, Michoacan.

Pilgrims listen to Pope Francis give the eulogy at a Mass for the indigenous at the Municipal Sports Center in San Cristobal de las Casas in southern Mexico. The Mass included several Mayan languages.

Pope Francis kisses a baby while riding through a crowd of pilgrims, many from indigenous communities surrounding San Cristobal de las Casas. The Mass included several Mayan languages.

Indigenous pilgrims from villages surrounding the southern Mexican town of San Cristobal de las Casas walk to the Municipal Sports Center, where Pope Francis will conduct Mass.

People lining Pope Francis’ route wave as he and his motorcade arrive in Ecatepec, a suburb northeast of Mexico City.

In Ecatepec, people arrive for a Mass with Pope Francis.

Pope Francis in a room behind the altar to pray before the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe while celebrating Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Pope Francis’ motorcade arrives at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe during his visit in Mexico City.

Pope Francis, center, arrives to celebrate a Holy Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Pope Francis arrives at Mexico City’s main square, the Zocalo.

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Pope Francis arrived Friday night on his first trip as pontiff to the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country of Mexico, following a historic meeting in Cuba with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church and looking ahead to a pointed and problematic mission.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and his wife, Angelica Rivera, greeted the pope, surrounded by mariachis and festively dressed dancers singing the Mexican classic “Cielito Lindo.”

“Queremos su bendicion!” the crowd shouted: “We want your blessing!”

It is the fourth trip as pope to the Americas for the Argentine native, the first pontiff born in the Americas.

Arriving at Benito Juarez International Airport at 7:30 p.m., the pope confronted an extraordinary Mexican spectacle: a full mariachi band, complete with men decked out in charro outfits and women dancers in white blouses and red skirts.

Many in the delirious audience of about 5,000 displayed the lights of their cellular phones, while also waving handkerchiefs of green, white and red, the colors of the Mexican flag.

Dancers on hand at the airport moved to a number of well-known Mexican songs, including “Jarabe Tapatio,” a traditional dance tune from the northern state of Jalisco. Enjoying the show from the red carpet, the pope applauded the performers.

Also greeting him were four children — two boys and two girls — wearing indigenous clothing from various regions of Mexico; one donned a complete mariachi outfit. Francis seemed to enjoy chatting with the children on the red carpet.

Later, children dressed in white ran toward the pope and embraced him. Mexico’s first lady lifted a child up to him, and he gave the child a kiss on the cheek. Announcers said the approach of the children was unscripted.

Then came the collective shout: “Mexico! Mexico!” and “Bendicion!” The smiling pope, appearing to savor the moment, turned and offered a blessing to the crowd, then walked along the foot of the grandstands set up on the tarmac and repeating his blessing.

Because of the wind, Francis removed the white cap he traditionally wears and held it in his hand.

The pope later greeted the mariachis, and put on one of the musicians’ broad-brimmed, gold-trimmed black charro hats, flashing another broad grin.

The pope, still flanked by the Mexican president and first lady, later welcomed a number of Mexican cardinals and bishops, taking time to chat with several of them. Also in the crowd were members of the Mexican Cabinet.

Finally, Francis and his growing entourage entered the presidential hangar, from where their motorcade set off on the 12-mile ride to the papal nuncio residence in the south of Mexico City. He rode in the papamovil , or “popemobile,” with three police motorcycles at the front of the procession.

Ahead of the pope’s arrival, Mexicans have beseeched him to address a roster of national troubles, including murderous violence, a raging drug war and government corruption.

On the eve of the pontiff’s visit, another Mexican journalist was killed—one of 16 slain in a state ruled by Peña Nieto’s party—and another prison riot left nearly 50 people dead. Dozens of priests and religious workers have also been killed, kidnapped or threatened.

Francis has said he will not shy away from criticizing “the little piece of war” that he said Mexicans were living, and from holding the powerful accountable.

Flanked by Peña Nieto and his wife at the airport reception, the pope smiled and waved as dancers performed and the invited crowd shouted his name and bells pealed.

Throughout the capital, many offices were closed or shut down early on Friday. The city had an expectant feel. Newspapers at the many street-side kiosks featured front-page photos of the pope with the ubiquitous headline: Bienvenido , or “welcome.”

NEWSLETTER: Get the day’s top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>

Work crews were cordoning off streets along the route from the airport south to the papal nuncio residence—on a street named after the late Pope John Paul II -- where Francis was to spend his evenings. Thousands were expected to be out in the streets, despite the winter evening chill, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pope’s motorcade from the airport.

In the Zocalo, the central square in the heart of the Mexican capital and once the hub of the Aztec empire, access was restricted for several blocks in all directions in anticipation of the papal visit, which is expected to draw massive crowds to the city center. Many people were planning to arrive after midnight and sleep on the streets to secure a good viewing spot. Police were installing metal detectors along the cobblestone streets.

On Saturday morning, an official welcoming ceremony is scheduled at the National Palace, on the Zocalo, before a “courtesy visit” with Peña Nieto. Later, Francis was to meet with Mexican bishops, across the Zocalo in the colonial-era Cathedral.

A grandstand and seats were set out in the square for 65,000 people who had tickets to enter and watch the spectacle on huge screens erected for the occasion. Banners welcomed the pontiff to “your home.”

All shops in the Zocalo area were ordered closed on Saturday, a decision that irked many merchants in the busy commercial district. Saturday is normally an important shopping day in the area.

“Of course, we’re upset we are going to close; we are all going to lose money,” said Armando Lopez, 54, who stood behind the counter in the Liliana jewelry emporium, facing the Zocalo. “But to make it worse, they didn’t even give us tickets to sit and watch the pope’s visit!”

Across town, barriers were being put up Friday along Calzada de Guadalupe, the route that the pope was scheduled to take on his trip Saturday to the Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico’s preeminent Roman Catholic shrine. Banners with the Mexican and Vatican flags hung from utility poles up and down the avenues.

As many as 4 million people were expected to descend on the area of the basilica, authorities said, though only 35,000 had tickets for the Mass service inside, over which Francis will preside. Tickets were distributed in local parishes.

Access to the basilica grounds was already blocked off, upsetting some early well-wishers.

“How is it possible I can’t enter the basilica?” protested a Catholic nun who was among many who could not get in. “I came all the way from Tijuana!”

Outside, municipal workers in yellow vests were posted along the pope’s route, preparing for the huge influx of people. An upbeat mood prevailed.

“Of course, we are very proud—this is the kind of event one remembers all of one’s life,” said Blanca Carbajal, one of the workers. “Anyway, he is Latin American. He is one of us, and with us.”

Her boss, the local city councilman, Victor Hugo Lobo, was inspecting the various staffers posted along the avenue. He seemed pleased at the turnout of workers.

“Of course, Mexico has its problems, but it has a lot of good things too,” said the councilman, accompanied by his own press attache. “It’s very special that the pope has chosen to come to our neighborhood and to the basilica, which is so important to all Mexicans.”

McDonnell reported from Mexico City and Wilkinson reported from Washington. Cecilia Sanchez in the Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.

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Foreign correspondent Patrick J. McDonnell is the Los Angeles Times Mexico City bureau chief and previously headed Times bureaus in Beirut, Buenos Aires and Baghdad. A native of the Bronx, McDonnell is a graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and was a Nieman fellow at Harvard.

Tracy Wilkinson covers foreign affairs from the Los Angeles Times’ Washington, D.C., bureau.

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The New York Times

Live coverage | pope francis visits u.s. – mexico border, pope francis visits u.s. – mexico border.

By The New York Times February 17, 2016 February 17, 2016

Pope Francis stepped directly into the angry American political debate about immigration on Wednesday when he visited Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, at the border with the United States. He celebrated Mass at a fairground barely 300 feet from the Rio Grande, calling forced migration “a human tragedy.” Scroll down to see how his trip to the border unfolded.

El Paso Stadium Erupts in Cheers for Pope

Near the end of Pope Francis’ homily, the moment that many who had filled the Sun Bowl here had been waiting for finally came. The pope acknowledged and thanked those watching a simulcast of the Mass on the other side of the border.

“Thank you, brothers and sisters in El Paso,” the pope said, as the stadium erupted in cheers.

It was not a sold-out crowd; a few sections remained empty throughout the Mass. Organizers estimated the audience at more than 30,000, and the Sun Bowl can seat more than 50,000. Yet many in the crowd were moved to tears at various points.

“I think maybe this is the only time that I’ll be this close to him,” said Rocio Simental, 48, of El Paso, who sat next to her son in the stadium. “I wanted to cry.”

Shortly before the Mass started, the pope walked up a ramp that had been built at the Rio Grande’s edge and prayed at the crosses there, the closest he appeared to come to the United States and to El Paso.

“He’s on the border!” Ms. Simental’s son, Christopher, 24, told his mother as he watched the screen and held up his cellphone to start recording.

Some rose to their feet to wave to the pope. Christopher Simental sat in his wheelchair. He has a spinal birth defect and can no longer walk. He takes part in therapeutic horseback riding, riding horses once a week in New Mexico.

“When he’s on a horse, it’s mimicking like if he were to be walking,” Ms. Simental explained.

Mr. Simental had a hard time putting his thoughts about the pope’s visit into words. “Just very emotionally star-struck,” he said.

Huge Crowd as Pope Delivers His Last Mass in Mexico

One thing about covering Francis. I go to church a lot more than I used to. And I go with a lot more people. Crowd at Mass estimated at 200K plus A video posted by Jim Yardley (@yardleyjb) on Feb 17, 2016 at 3:55pm PST

Amid Anger on Campaign Trail, Francis Calls for Compassion

Pope Francis is finishing up the homily for his Mass on the border in Juárez. He has described the plight of the thousands of people, mostly from Central America, who are fleeing chaos in a forced migration north.

At a time when anger defines much of the discussion on immigration in the United States, certainly in the Republican presidential race, Francis called for compassion.

It will be interesting to see how this plays among the Republican candidates.

Pope Calls Forced Migration ‘a Human Tragedy’ at Mass

Pope Francis called forced migration “a human tragedy” during his Mass in Ciudad Juárez.

“We cannot deny the humanitarian crisis which in recent years has meant the migration of thousands of people, whether by train or highway or on foot, crossing hundreds of kilometers through mountains, deserts and inhospitable zones,” he said. “The human tragedy that is forced migration is a global phenomenon today.”

He described “a journey laden with grave injustices: the enslaved, the imprisoned and extorted,” adding, “So many of these brothers and sisters of ours are the consequence of a trade in human beings.”

He cited poverty, violence, drug trafficking and lawlessness as the root causes of migration to the United States from Central America and Mexico.

Here is more from his remarks:

“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. Then there are the many women unjustly robbed of their lives.

No more death nor exploitation! There is still time to change. There is still a way out and a chance, time to implore the mercy of God.”

Francis saluted the migrant rights groups, priests and lay people “often risking their own lives” to help people on the trail.

“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,” he concluded.

Juárez Is Breathing New Life

The city of Juárez is all but empty, bereft of traffic, human and vehicular. Hundreds of thousands have made their way to the open field where the pope is just finishing his final Mass in Mexico, catching one of the dozens of buses normally reserved for ferrying factory employees to and from work.

The effort sprang to life at 4 a.m., when drivers began congregating in stations across the city to transport visitors from all over Mexico (and even a few from the United States). Since then, more and more have piled up at the entrance to the facility, some lucky enough to have tickets to attend and others hoping to find scalpers or wheedle their way in.

On the buses this morning, residents expressed a pride unique to those who have lived through dark times and come out on the other end.

Just a few years ago, Juárez was considered the most dangerous city in the world, a stand-in for the decay prompted by the drug trade. Since then, after a scattershot campaign by the government to reverse the deadly course, violence has dropped and the city is breathing new life.

Francis Wanted a Powerful Image, and He Got One

It was quite a moment. After riding through a huge crowd at the border in his popemobile, Francis paused behind a stage and then re-emerged, still in the vehicle. He was driven to the memorial that had been built for those who have died along the border. Slowly, he walked up the ramp toward the great cross now rising beside the Rio Grande. At the top, he crossed himself and prayed. Then he stood alone for a few moments before taking a bouquet of flowers and placing them on a small table before the cross.

What might have been most amazing was the silence. On the Mexican side, the crowd of 200,000 watched in complete quiet. On the American side, border agents peered through the fence with binoculars, usually used to look for immigrants sneaking over, but today simply for a better view.

Francis wanted a powerful image, and he got one. He wanted to commemorate the dead and offer a reminder of the families who are separated. It took maybe two or three minutes.

Now we wait for the Mass, the final event of his Mexico trip.

‘We Just Want His Blessing,’ Says Migrant at Border

Seated near the front row of the stage for Pope Francis’ final Mass in Mexico, a cluster of migrants, many from Central America and wearing matching red hats, baked in the afternoon heat. They had arrived at 7 a.m. to get a good seat. All were temporary residents of the Juárez migrant shelter, which houses up to 100 migrants at a time and has become a warm transit point for those approaching the final phase of their journey to the United States.

Most of the men had been deported at least once from the United States, ejected back into Mexico, where they found little respite. With encouragement from their American counterparts, the authorities here have been cracking down on migrants, bringing to a close the once-easy passage through Mexico.

The men could all attest to this, at least those not of Mexican nationality. Now that they were at the border, they were taking a break to gather their wits and resources before the final pass. The papal visit was a diversion, of sorts, to break the monotony of the days waiting to cross.

But it was also a chance to bask in a message of compassion and righteousness after nearly three weeks of rugged travel.

“It was really hard, riding the train, walking, without food or water, trying to avoid the police and the thieves,” said Josue Daniel, 26, from Guatemala, who was on the cusp of making the crossing. “I hope the pope delivers a message that we are all humans, so the Mexicans can hear it.”

He said that in Juárez, the workers at the shelter had been kind, treating him with dignity and respect. “Elsewhere, we were very poorly treated,” he noted.

Guatemala, like its neighbors El Salvador and Honduras, is mired in an epidemic of violence that has forced hundreds of thousands to flee the region in recent years. Gangs are pervasive, extorting and murdering with impunity, while corruption tears at the seams of daily life. In this environment, families often feel they have no choice but to send their children on a 1,200-mile march by themselves in order to escape. More than 20,000 unaccompanied children were nabbed at the United States’ border with Mexico from October through January.

Mr. Daniel talked about this, too, as a band blared music from a stage and the crowd waved flags plastered with the face of the pope. He was 10 the first time he tried to escape, then 18, then 21, then 24, and now 26. Life in Guatemala, he said, had only grown worse in that time.

Mr. Daniel looked at the stage, where the dancing and singing continued. He would cross in the coming days, he said, and keep trying until he made it back into the United States.

How would this visit by the pope help his cause?

“We just want his blessing,” he said with a smile. “After this, it will go well.”

Waiting for Francis, on Both Sides of the Border

Pope Francis should be here fairly soon, and while about 200,000 people are waiting for him in Ciudad Juárez for the Mass, he also has 100 or more people waiting for him on the United States side. They were organized by the Roman Catholic Church’s diocese in El Paso, and many are wearing matching orange T-shirts.

I can see security trucks right beside the river, but police cars are also blocking roads. It must be a security precaution.

Interesting is a sign on a building on the El Paso side: “Immigrant lives matter.”

At Border, Pope Will Find Memorial for Those Who Died Trying to Cross

When Pope Francis arrives at the border, he is going to walk onto a new memorial, built for him, that commemorates those who have died trying to reach the United States. There is a large cross overlooking the Rio Grande, which here is just a channelized concrete ditch.

The question is whether Francis will walk to the edge of the river.

About 100 people have been allowed to gather on the American side. Parked near them is a line of security vehicles, including one from the Border Patrol.

Francis Is Across Border, but His Presence Is Felt in El Paso

Hours before the start of Pope Francis’ Mass in Ciudad Juárez , hundreds of people stood in line outside the Sun Bowl football stadium here, waiting to enter for a live simulcast, some shielding themselves from the hot sun with umbrellas, baseball caps and cowboy hats.

A group of parishioners from Our Lady of Fatima church in Van Horn, Tex., stood in matching blue T-shirts, fresh from a nearly two-hour, eight-vehicle road trip. Several of them were teenagers whose schools, like numerous others in and around El Paso, had closed for the day to allow students and faculty to attend the Sun Bowl event or the Mass in Juárez.

“It’s a blessing for us,” said Cornelio Garibay, 55, a Culberson County commissioner who teaches at the church and helped organize the trip. “We’re close to the border ourselves in Van Horn. Having our pope coming in close to us is a historical deal.”

The Sun Bowl is literally carved into the brown desert mountains and is home to the University of Texas at El Paso’s Miners football team.

Amid the rocky backdrop and the stadium setting, the event took on the feel of an outdoor, bilingual megachurch rally, with music, prayers and dancing. One end zone was emblazoned with the orange Miners logo; on the other was mounted a stage for the performers and speakers. Next to one concession stand, people posed for photos with a life-size Francis cut-out. Ticket prices ranged from $5 to $21.

Pablo Guillen, 62, a retired water maintenance worker who has lived in El Paso since he was 5, said he did not mind paying $13 to attend. “I would have paid more,” said Mr. Guillen, who sat in the thin strip of shade provided by a light pole in the parking lot. “He’s across the border, but his presence will touch everybody.”

Joan Cannon, 83, of Franklin, Mass., leaned on a cane with her left hand and clutched the beads of a rosary with her right. Her daughter lives in El Paso, but the pope’s visit was one of the main reasons for her trip to Texas.

“It’s just something very special to be in the presence of the pope, even if it is by teletron or whatever,” she said. “You can just feel the love and the excitement in the crowd.”

Vatican Press Corps Reaches Site for Pope’s Mass

The Vatican press corps just reached the site where Pope Francis will celebrate Mass in Ciudad Juárez. The border with the United States is less than a football field’s length away, and there are maybe 200,000 people gathered on the Mexican side waiting for Francis to arrive in the next hour and a half. There is a small group of people waiting for him on the American side, too.

In Visit to College, Francis Says ‘God Will Hold Slavedrivers Accountable’

Prisons are a staple of most of Francis’ trips, and so are meetings with workers. After leaving a penitentiary on Wednesday, Francis went to Bachilleres College to speak to workers and business owners in his second stop of the day.

It offered another chance for the Argentine pope to articulate his economic critique of consumer societies — one that has brought criticism from some in the United States. Throughout his visit, Francis has implored Mexico to create opportunities for its young people, and he returned to that theme again, describing a cycle in which a lack of opportunity creates poverty and alienation and becomes “the best breeding ground for the young to fall into the cycle of drug trafficking and violence.”

But Francis also looked beyond Mexico to dive into some of the themes he explored during a dramatic speech last year in Bolivia, in which he railed against a “new colonialism” wrought by capitalistic excess. On Wednesday, he argued against what he called an “imposed” 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,” he said, arguing that this caused the “ethical dimension of business to be lost.”

He added: “God will hold the slavedrivers of our days accountable, 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.”

Francis has a knack for zesty prose, but his arguments are firmly rooted in the Roman Catholic Church’s social doctrine. He raised that doctrine on Wednesday as a rebuttal to critics who said his vision seemed to call for businesses to become charities or philanthropic institutions.

“The only aspiration of the church’s social doctrine is to guard over the integrity of people and social structures,” he said. “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.”

He added: “This is against no one, but in favor of all. Every sector has the obligation of looking out for the good of all; we are all in the same boat.”

Society, he continued, must struggle to ensure that “work is a humanizing moment” and a “space for building up society and each person’s participation in it.”

Noting that his audience included workers and business owners, Francis conceded that answers were hardly easy. “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,” he said. “Profit and capital are not a good over and above the human person; they are at the service of the common good.”

Does the Pope Know What Trump Says About Him?

Pope Francis has not watched television in decades, and by his own account, he gets most of his daily news from a local newspaper in Rome, Il Messaggero. His communications staff members run a Twitter account in his name with millions of followers, but Francis has laughingly conceded that he is pretty useless with cellphones and computers.

All of which prompted a question on Tuesday as a weary press corps spent a final night in Mexico City before the trip to Juárez: Given that the pope is not an obsessed consumer of global media, does he know who Donald J. Trump is? And does he know that Mr. Trump recently criticized the pope as a politician who is doing the bidding of the Mexican government by visiting the border?

Fielding questions during an end-of-day news conference, Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, seemed to smile faintly when the question about Mr. Trump was asked. He offered no specifics on what Francis knew about Mr. Trump, though he did note that the pope is kept well informed of events. He also pointed out that Francis has a global focus on the plight of immigrants and that he regularly raises the issue in other countries and from the Vatican.

Father Lombardi did betray the faintest hint of annoyance, though, at Mr. Trump’s accusation that the pope was a tool of Mexican officials.

“To call him an instrument of Mexico’s government — I would say not,” he said.

Given Francis’ global standing, his actions can obviously have political effects, Father Lombardi added, but his overriding purposes are pastoral and spiritual.

“He is not a politician, because this is not his activity,” Father Lombardi said. “He believes in Christ. He is a believer in the Gospel.”

New Immigration Patterns Put Mexico in Very Different Position

For most of the last several decades, Mexico has been the primary exporter of migrants to the United States. From 1965 to 2015, according to the Pew Research Center, more than 16 million Mexicans entered the United States, one of the largest mass migrations in history, igniting a debate over border security and the economic effects of immigration that has been a mainstay of American domestic politics.

Fast-forward a few presidential election cycles, and the exact same debate is underway. But now, the immigration patterns have changed drastically. This time around, Mexico arguably has more in common with the United States than the migrants.

That is in part because Mexico has become a transit route for hundreds of thousands of Central American migrants fleeing an epidemic of gang violence and a lack of economic opportunities.

In response to the record number of Salvadorans, Hondurans and Guatemalans coursing through their country, and to American pressure, the Mexican authorities are cracking down on these migrants.

In the recent past, Mexican officials let migrants pass through their territory without harassment. But now, the vigilance is intense. Under its Southern Border Plan, the Mexican government has strengthened border enforcement in the country’s southern states, with a focus on Chiapas. The increased checkpoints and patrols have forced many migrants to take new routes through the country, at greater peril.

The surge in detentions speaks for itself. In 2015, the Mexican authorities arrested more than 170,000 Central American migrants passing through the country illegally. In 2013, that figure was 70,000.

The equation for Mexican immigrants has also changed in recent years. More Mexicans are leaving the United States than are entering it, putting the brakes on the largest influx of immigrants from a single country in American history.

The data, collected by the Pew Research Center from 2009 to 2014, point to several reasons for the change, experts say. A better quality of life in Mexico after the American recession of 2008, cheaper retirement costs back home and a desire to be with family are among them.

But this change in immigration patterns, taken with Mexico’s larger role as a dragnet for Central Americans on their way to the United States, has placed Mexico inside the very debate underway in the United States.

One question is whether Pope Francis will acknowledge Mexico’s altered role on Wednesday and turn a moral high beam on it as well.

Pope Walks Into U.S. Debate Redefined by Donald Trump

By going to the border to call for compassion for migrants, Pope Francis is walking into a debate in the United States that has been redefined by Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, and his call to build a wall to keep Mexicans out.

Mr. Trump’s portrayal of Mexican immigrants as criminals has been a central theme of his campaign, one that is consistently popular with supporters who say they admire his blunt talk.

In an interview last week, Mr. Trump insisted again that he would make Mexico pay for the wall. He estimated that it would cost $8 billion, an amount he said was “a tiny fraction of the money that we lose with Mexico” on trade.

Mr. Trump’s plan to deport 11 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally, about half of them Mexicans, has pushed other Republican candidates to take a harder line. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has called for tougher border enforcement while backing away from his support for a pathway to citizenship for such immigrants, and he has accused a rival, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, of being soft on illegal immigration. Mr. Cruz has said he would not support any form of what he calls amnesty.

A former Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, responded to Mr. Trump last week, speaking on CNBC . “The Mexican people, we are not going to pay any single cent for such a stupid wall,” he said.

‘We Feel in El Paso Like He’s Visiting Us as Well’

In Mexico, Ciudad Juárez has naturally been consumed with the visit by Pope Francis on Wednesday. But across the border in Texas, its sister city, El Paso, has been swept up as well.

El Paso and Juárez share so many geographic, cultural and demographic ties that few here dwell on the fact that Francis is not expected to actually set foot on the American side of the border.

The physical border that separates the two cities, the Rio Grande, is so narrow here that some offices and rooftops in El Paso have a view of downtown Juárez, and people often calculate the distance to Mexico not in miles but in blocks.

“We feel in El Paso like he’s visiting us as well,” said Representative Beto O’Rourke, Democrat of Texas, who is a native of the city. “Two cities from two different countries could not be more connected. The street grids connect through the international bridges that connect the two cities. There’s family connections — people whose parents live on one side, they live on the other, or siblings who are on different sides. It really is two halves of one community.”

On Wednesday, parts of El Paso seemed to both come alive and grind to a halt. Downtown, businesses were shuttered and the sidewalks were largely empty. City administrative offices were closed, as were many schools and sections of highways and streets. But thousands of people started converging on the Sun Bowl, the football stadium on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso. The late-afternoon Mass that Francis will celebrate at the former Juárez fairgrounds will be shown at the stadium in a two-way telecast that will also allow Francis to view those at the Sun Bowl.

Pope Francis Has Called for Attention for Migrants Before

In visiting the border today, Pope Francis is diving into the American political debate about immigration, but he is also simply saying and doing what he has done on trips elsewhere in the world.

Not long after becoming pope in 2013, Francis chose the Italian island of Lampedusa for his first papal trip . It was a telling decision, because for years, migrants from North Africa had risked their lives to reach Lampedusa on rickety boats or rubber rafts. His message was a cry for global attention to the migrants drowning in the Mediterranean.

When he visited the Holy Land in May 2014, Francis made an unscheduled stop in Bethlehem , in the West Bank, to pray and lean his head against the controversial partition wall that divides the Palestinian sector of the city from Israel.

His visit to the United States in September 2015 was more of the same. When he stood with President Obama on the South Lawn of the White House, Francis introduced himself as “a son of immigrants,” a reminder that his parents fled Fascist Italy for Argentina. During his address to Congress , Francis reminded lawmakers of America’s immigrant tradition and called on them to welcome such desperate people, not demonize or fear them.

Some critics say Francis’ gestures are resonant but ultimately just gestures. Yet, in at least one case, his influence is credited with policy change. In 2013, hundreds of migrants were believed to have drowned near the coast of Lampedusa after their rickety boat sank . Francis spoke out, calling the accident a terrible tragedy that did not need to happen. Italian officials soon created a naval rescue program, Mare Nostrum, credited with saving more than 100,000 migrants in the Mediterranean. Some officials say Francis’ words influenced the decision by Prime Minister Enrico Letta to establish the rescue mission.

Pope Francis Initially Had Different Plan for Border Trip

Pope Francis clearly understands the power of gestures, and his visit today to the border is deliberately dramatic and provocative. But it was not his initial plan.

Originally, the Vatican had considered combining a trip to Mexico with Francis’ visit to the United States in September. The idea was that Francis would travel to Mexico by land. It is hard to imagine a more visually arresting image than a Latin American pope crossing the border where many desperate migrants have died trying to reach the United States.

But last year, Francis told reporters that his plan was not to be. To visit the United States and Mexico together would require a very long trip, or a shorter trip that would shortchange one country over the other. He said he could not imagine a short trip to Mexico that denied him time to visit the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe (which he did on Saturday).

So the Vatican instead tacked on a visit to Cuba, which itself assumed a special symbolism after the unexpected announcement of a diplomatic rapprochement between Havana and Washington. Francis had secretly helped broker the deal.

Pope Francis's visit to Mexico - in pictures

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During his five-day visit to Mexico and surrounded by large crowds the Pope’s focus was on the marginalised with his itinerary including a visit to prisoners and Mass near the Mexico-US border

Enrique Perez Huerta

Thu 25 Feb 2016 12.08 GMT Last modified on Thu 5 Oct 2017 16.55 BST

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Mexican Cardinal: Pope Francis to Visit Mexico in February

Pope Francis is expected to visit the famous Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe when he arrives in Mexico.

MEXICO CITY — Pope Francis will visit Mexico in February 2016, Cardinal Norberto Rivera announced on Sunday.

“I have a piece of news that everyone already knows: The Holy Father comes to visit us, and he comes on the afternoon of Feb. 12. So, from that day, we will receive him with much love,” the archbishop of Mexico City said.

The cardinal made the announcement during Sunday Mass at Mexico City’s cathedral Nov. 1, Televisa reports. He suggested that the date of the Pope’s arrival in Mexico was “very close” to Feb. 12.

The Vatican has not yet made an official announcement of the trip.

On Oct. 6, Father Ciro Benedettini, the vice director of the Holy See Press Office, told CNA that the Pope was seriously considering a trip to Mexico next year. He said that if the trip takes place, an agenda is expected to be released in November.

Mexico would be Pope Francis’ fourth trip to the Americas. He visited Brazil for World Youth Day in August 2013. In July of 2014, he traveled to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay. He visited the United States and Cuba Sept. 19-27.

The Pope has indicated he wanted to spend a full week there, especially to visit the famous Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In March, he told the Mexican media group Televisa he had wanted to enter the U.S. from the country’s Mexican border as a symbolic gesture. However, he decided that would be too short a visit for Mexico.

“So I promise a trip to Mexico as it deserves, and not to hurry and pass through,” the Pope told Televisa in March.

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Pope Francis in visit of hope to Mexico

Francis wants to stand with victims of corruption, violence and organised crime during his five-day visit to Mexico.

Pope Francis’ trip to Mexico – his first as pontiff – is packed with events that will underscore the endemic violence and corruption found across the country.

His itinerary reads like a trip to combat zones – Ecatepec, a gritty violent sprawling suburb of Mexico City; Michoacan, the state where drug cartel violence spawned a vigilante movement; and Ciudad Juarez, once known as the most violent city in the hemisphere.

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To top it off, he’ll also reach out to indigenous Catholics in Chiapas, leading prayers in their native languages. This is a group former Vatican officials and popes have kept at arm’s length.

It is all part of a wider point. Francis wants to stand in solidarity with the millions of Mexicans touched by corruption, violence and organised crime. 

By holding a Mass on Sunday in Ecatepec, he is shining a light on a community that for many is a microcosm of Mexico. Femicides, extortion, kidnapping and killings are daily occurrences there. There are reports of lynchings too, by mobs fed up with violence and government neglect.

READ MORE: Pope Francis calls on Iran to promote Middle East peace

When interviewing an anti-crime activist, Osmar León, we asked him his title. Confused that we were asking for a title for the news story he said “The Hell of Living in Ecatepec.”

Just one man’s opinion, but it shows how bad the situation is for those who live on the violent periphery of Mexico City.

Many who attend Francis’ Mass on Sunday will likely either be victims of violent crime, family members of murder victims or relatives of someone who’s gone missing or disappeared. 

Ecatepec also highlights the possibility of Mexico. It is home to about 1.7 million people – many of whom just want to work hard to get ahead. I met one such woman, Pilar, who cleans houses in Mexico City. She built a house in Ecatepec with her husband more than 20 years ago. They still keep fixing it. One of their five children is an engineer, another is a doctor and one more is in university. She and her family carry on despite regular run-ins with armed robbers on buses and criminal gangs in their neighbourhood.

By visiting Michoacan state, Francis is trying to show his defence of priests who have stood up to cartels there. Some of those priests were kidnapped and killed.

Michoacán was so thoroughly controlled by La Familia Michoacana and its offshoot, the Knights Templar, that vigilantes took up arms to fight back – with mixed and complicated results.

Francis will wrap up his trip on February 17, with a visit to a prison that used to be run by drug gangs in Ciudad Juarez. He will then say Mass at the border with participants on both the U.S. and Mexican sides. He will say a prayer for all the migrants who have died on their journey to the U.S..

Each of these visits to areas better known for past or present conflicts will allow Francis to draw attention to the suffering and pain wrought by corruption, drug trafficking and criminal gangs.

Pope’s calls for stability

It also makes for some uncomfortable moments for the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto.

When Pope Benedict XVI came to Mexico in 2012, he visited typical holy sites in Mexico City and the conservative centre of the country.

Francis will do that, too. He says his greatest desire is to stand in front of the cloth with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe – the holiest shrine in Mexico and the most visited Marian shrine in the world. But after he fulfils his personal goal to pray and look on the most potent religious and cultural symbol in Mexico, the trip becomes more controversial and politically loaded.

Still, if the president and his administration artfully manage the trip and back some of Francis’ calls for a more secure, less corrupt Mexico, they could even boost their capital with voters.

As the first Latin American pope, Francis is extremely popular here. The president and other politicians are hoping some of his shine rubs off on them.

Pope Francis Arrives in Mexico for Five-Day Visit

Pope Francis kicked off his first trip to Mexico, and will include a very personal prayer before the Virgin of Guadalupe shrine.

Accompanied by Mexican Cardinal and Archbishop of Mexico City Norberto Rivera, center, and Papal Nuncio Christophe Pierre, right, Pope Francis dons a Mexican charro style sombrero that was given to him by a person in the crowd, in Mexico City's main square, the Zocalo, on Feb. 13, 2016. Pope Francis kicked off his first trip to Mexico on Saturday with speeches to the country's political and ecclesiastic elites. The pontiff's five-day visit will include a prayer at the Virgin of Guadalupe shrine.

A young girl waits for the passage of Pope Francis on his way to the Nuncianture, in Mexico City on Feb. 13, 2016.

Pope Francis waves to the crowd, aboard the popemobile in Mexico City's main square, the Zocalo, on Feb. 13, 2016.

Pope Francis kisses a child in a wheelchair at Mexico City's main sqaure, the Zocalo, on Feb. 13, 2016.

Pope Francis waves to the crowd while leaving Zocalo Square in Mexico City on Feb. 13, 2016.

People wait for Pope Francis outside Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City on Feb. 13, 2016.

Pope Francis meets with bishops at the National Cathedral in Mexico City on Feb. 13, 2016.

A Mexican bishop take a photo as Pope Francis arrives for a meeting with the Bishops of Mexico gathered in the Cathedral in Mexico on Feb. 13, 2016. Pope Francis called on Mexico's leaders Saturday to provide "true justice" and security to citizens hit by drug violence as he addressed a National Palace packed with politicians.

Pope Francis is welcomed by Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, center right, and his wife Angelica Rivera, center left, at the Presidential palace in Mexico City, on Feb. 13, 2016.

Pope Francis laughs along with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto during a welcoming ceremony at the National Palace in Mexico City, on Feb. 13, 2016.

A person is covered in a Pope Francis blanket in Mexico City on Feb. 13, 2016.

A woman sports a face painting depicting Pope Francis in Mexico City on Feb. 12, 2016.

Pope Francis greets youth dressed in traditional Mexican outfits upon his arrival to the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City on Feb. 12, 2016. The pontiff is in Mexico for a week-long visit.

Pope Francis waves to people from the popemobile on his route to the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican's diplomatic mission, in Mexico City on Feb. 12, 2016.

Pope Francis wears a sombrero he was handed alongside Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, right, and first lady Angelica Rivera after his arrival in Mexico City on Feb. 12, 2016.

Pope Francis speaks with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, right, and first lady Angelica Rivera upon his arrival at the Benito Juarez International Airport, in Mexico City on Feb. 12, 2016.

Pope Francis is welcomed upon his arrival at the Benito Juarez International Airport, in Mexico City on Feb. 12, 2016.

Pope Francis arrives to Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, on Feb. 12, 2016.

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Pope Francis to visit Mexico: Here are five things you need to know

Pope Francis travels to Mexico on Friday for a weeklong tour of some of the most violent, poverty-stricken and peripheral places in the Americas.

Vatican City: History’s first Latin American pope travels to Mexico on Friday for a weeklong tour of some of the most violent, poverty-stricken and peripheral places in the Americas. He’ll be bringing a message of hope and solidarity to victims of drug violence, trafficking and discrimination — a message the Vatican hopes will also resonate north of the border.

Nearly four decades after St. John Paul II began his globe-trotting papacy in Mexico, Francis too will begin his trip by praying before the Virgin of Guadalupe shrine. But after that, he will be entering into uncharted papal territory. Here are five things to know about Francis’ trip to the largest Spanish-speaking Catholic country in the world:

Orthodox pit stop

Francis is known for his spontaneity, but even by Franciscan standards, the bombshell dropped last week was big.

For the first time ever, a pope and a patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church will meet Friday in Cuba, in a stopover en route to Mexico. The Vatican sees the meeting as a historic step in the path toward healing the 1,000-year schism that split Christianity.

Popes as far back as Paul VI have met with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch, “first among equals” in the 250 million-strong Orthodox Church. But the Russian Church — the biggest and most powerful in Orthodoxy — has always kept its distance from Rome.

The common concern over the plight of Christians in Syria and Iraq has brought the two churches together, but that’s not the only reason Patriarch Kirill has finally agreed to a meeting. In June, leaders of the 14 Orthodox churches meet in Greece for the first pan-Orthodox synod in centuries. Observers say Kirill’s opening is more about grandstanding within Orthodox circles than any new ecumenical initiative.

‘Mexicanization’

Francis made the first major diplomatic faux pas of his papacy when, in a private email to a friend last year, he warned that Argentina’s increasing drug problem risked turning it into a trafficking haven like Mexico, where cartels have terrorized the population and infiltrated police and other public institutions.

The “Mexicanization” comment understandably irked Mexico, and the Vatican promptly apologized. But it underscored Francis’ tough line on drug trafficking and corruption, which he has called a sin incompatible with Christianity.

Francis is expected to address both blights during his Feb. 12-18 visit, though he has said he’s not bringing policy solutions to fix Mexico’s ills. But relatives of some of the 43 students who disappeared in 2014 in suspicious circumstances have been invited to Francis’ final Mass in Ciudad Juarez, once considered the murder capital of the world.

“It’s the fundamental place of passage for this network of drug trafficking, where the links are inseparable between the narcotraffickers and Mexican law enforcement,” Guzman Carriquiry Lecour, a close papal adviser, told a recent seminar. “This is the Mexican periphery and the pope wants to go.”

Church-State relations

Francis has previously urged his bishops not to shy away from denouncing corruption and organized crime, and he may well do the same in Mexico.

“Above all, we have to raise our voices to condemn the corruption and links that exist between certain power structures and the drug cartels and narcotraffickers that allow them to move freely with impunity,” the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, told the Italian weekly Famiglia Cristiana recently.

It was perhaps a diplomatic way of addressing a Mexican church that even Mexican prelates say shows too much deference to the country’s wealthy and powerful.

Francis, however, has signaled his priorities: Last year he made a cardinal out of the bishop of Morelia, Mexico, and will honor his ministry to victims of drug violence by visiting his diocese.

An Indian church

When churchmen have stood by Mexico’s oppressed, they have often got in trouble. The late Bishop Samuel Ruiz, known as the “bishop of the poor” for his ministry to the impoverished Indians of southern Chiapas, ran afoul of the Mexican government and, at times, the Vatican.

His crime? Defending Indian rights, embracing the pre-Hispanic customs of the Mayan Indians in liturgies and training married deacons to minister to Indians who had more esteem for married lay workers than celibate priests.

In 1993, the Vatican ambassador to Mexico asked Ruiz to resign, but backed down after Indians rallied to his defense. After Ruiz retired in 1999, the Vatican suspended the ordination of deacons on the grounds that it was dissuading men from entering the priesthood. The Vatican under Francis lifted the ban in 2014.

Francis, who issued a sweeping apology for Catholic crimes against indigenous peoples in a visit to South America last year, will celebrate a very Indian Mass in Chiapas on Monday and present a decree authorizing the use of indigenous languages in liturgy.

But in an indication that Ruiz remains a controversial figure, the Vatican won’t confirm whether Francis will pray at Ruiz’s tomb in the cathedral of San Cristobal de las Casas.

Cross-border prayer

The highlight of the trip comes on the final day, when Francis travels to Ciudad Juarez and prays at Mexico’s northern border for all who have died trying to cross. A group of migrants in El Paso, Texas, will join him in prayer across the frontier, and then watch Francis’ subsequent Mass in Juarez in an El Paso stadium.

Francis has demanded that countries welcome migrants and refugees fleeing poverty and oppression, calling for bold new solutions and denouncing the “globalization of indifference” that the world shows migrants. His appeal comes amid a U.S. presidential campaign where immigration is a hot-button issue, with Republican contenders Donald Trump and Ted Cruz vowing to expel Mexicans and build a better border wall.

Will Francis’ message get any airtime north of the border?

“I’m not sure people are paying attention to it,” said Neomi De Anda, assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton who grew up in El Paso. “I’m not sure our political candidates are all that interested.”

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Pope Francis says situation at U.S.-Mexico border is 'serious problem'

In an interview with Telemundo, a U.S.-based Spanish-language television network, Pope Francis was asked about the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, about Ukraine, about abortion and about his accomplishments in the 10 years of his papacy.

Pope Francis waves at a participant during a meeting of Scholas Occurentes, an educational initiative, held at the Augustinianum Institute for Patristic Studies in Rome May 25, 2023. Julian Vaqueiro, a Telemundo journalist seen in front holding a microphone, was the event's master of ceremonies, and spoke with Pope Francis in an interview released May 25. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis called the migration crisis between Mexico and the United States a "serious problem" and praised a U.S. bishop working along the border during an interview with Telemundo journalist Julio Vaqueiro.

In the interview, broadcast May 25, the pope was shown photos of a baby wrapped in a blanket and placed inside a suitcase to be taken across the Rio Grande into the United States.

"It's a serious problem there," the pope said in response. "On the other side (of the border) there is a great man, Bishop Seitz" of El Paso, Texas.

"This bishop feels (the problem)," Pope Francis said. "The problem of migrants is serious, it's serious there and it's serious here," he said about Europe, particularly "along the Libyan coast."

Speaking about his own experience as a child of immigrants, and now as an immigrant in Rome, the pope said that every person who leaves his or her homeland "misses the air of their birthplace."

"The mate you make in a thermos yourself is not the same as the mate your mom or your aunt makes for you," he said, referring to the caffeinated herbal drink popular in Argentina.

Vaqueiro asked Pope Francis about his meeting May 13 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The pope said Zelenskyy asked for his help in returning Ukrainian children who have been taken into Russia and told the pope to "not dream much about mediations."

Since the outbreak of the war, the Vatican has avoided openly condemning the Russian government and has offered itself as a mediator for peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

"Really, Ukraine's bloc is very strong, it's all of Europe, the United States, so it has a lot of strength," Pope Francis said to explain why a Vatican mediation did not appear immediately feasible. "But what really pained (Zelenskyy) and what he asked for collaboration on was trying to get the children back into Ukraine."

More than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported into Russia or Russian-held territories according to a Ukrainian government website. The U.N. Human Rights Office has classified Russia's illegal transfer of children into its territories as a war crime.

In response to a question on abortion, Pope Francis said that a fetus is a "living being, I'm not saying a person, but a living being."

"Is it licit to eliminate a living being to resolve a problem?" he asked. "Is it licit to hire a hitman to resolve a problem?"

On abuse, the pope said that priestly celibacy "has nothing to do" with the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy, since, he said, abuse is committed at high rates within families and schools by married persons too.

Vaqueiro, who served earlier in the evening as master of ceremonies at Pope Francis' meeting with members of Scholas Occurentes, a Vatican-related educational initiative, asked the pope what still needed to be done to realize the reforms discussed by the cardinals in the lead up to the conclave that elected him pope just over 10 years ago.

"Everything," Pope Francis said. "It's curious, as you do things, you realize everything that still needs to be done; it's something insatiable."

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Local Priest In City Notorious For Crime Reacts To Pope Francis' Visit To Mexico

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Father Kevin Mullins, a priest in crime-plagued Juarez, Mexico, about what his flock is hoping to hear from Pope Francis this week.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

In other news today, 300,000 Mexicans lined up for hours to celebrate mass with Pope Francis in a hard-scrabble area outside Mexico City. He urged Mexicans to make their country a land of opportunity.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

POPE FRANCIS: (Speaking Spanish).

MARTIN: "A land where there will be no need to emigrate in order to dream, no need to be exploited in order to work," he said. On Wednesday, the pope travels to another Mexican city which has become, for many, a symbol of rampant crime and grinding poverty. He's heading to Juarez, just over the border from El Paso, Texas. Among the crowds welcoming him will be Father Kevin Mullins. He was born in Australia, but he's served this community for 15 years, and I asked him to tell me about his parishioners.

KEVIN MULLINS: We live in the - what's called a colonia. It's a slum parish on the western side of Ciudad Juarez. And most of the people here would work in the large factories which are found here in Ciudad Juarez, a very poor area. The people are very wonderful people - very noble, very brave - and I'm most privileged to be the priest here for the last, I think it's 15-and-a-half years now.

MARTIN: Fifteen-and-a-half. So how are people reacting to the visit? Is there a particular message that people are hoping for?

MULLINS: Well, I was just talking to about 50 people this morning in our Saturday morning Bible study, and I asked them the same question you're asking me, Michel, that - and people are very happy. They're delighted that the pope would come to Ciudad Juarez. It's an infamous city because of the killing that's taken place here but people here, they're hoping for blessings and - these blessings of love and for all the people of Juarez.

MARTIN: You know, it may be an odd question, but I'm wondering whether people feel safe to come out. I mean, we hear so often, you know, on this side of the border about gatherings like birthday parties...

MULLINS: ...Sure...

MARTIN: ...Being disrupted by violence, and sometimes people think it isn't even - they don't even know necessarily who the target is. And I was wondering if people - are they comfortable to come out to a big public event like this?

MULLINS: I would say so because there's been a change, Michel, in the last, let me say, two years, two-and-a-half years. The kill rate, of course, is still very high of 32 murders a month, but that's a lot less than the 320 a month we had in the year 2010. And I believe that there's a greater sense of optimism amongst the population here in Juarez. We don't expect anything dire to happen to us or to anybody during the pope's visit.

MARTIN: I'm told you've experienced this yourself firsthand, this kind of - obviously, thankfully, you're here to tell us about it. But do you mind telling us about some of the things that you have experienced?

MULLINS: Sure. In 2008, the violence started approximately the month of April. And one of the fathers of one of the girls in our confirmation group, he was shot in the head one afternoon and the police stopped his sons from chasing the killers, which was very disconcerting for us. The next day at mass, a group of people approached me and asked me to pray for them. The wife told me that she had her husband's body, but she couldn't find his head. I remember at the time, it was very shocking. And then later on - as a priest, we pray for the dead and the dying, so I often gave what's called or used to be called the last rites to people who had been executed in the street, and there was many, many instances of that. I remember those days, those instances of violence very clearly - very vividly remain in my memory.

MARTIN: What do you see as your role in the community at a time like this? And the church - frankly, what is the church's role in all of this?

MULLINS: I think that the church has a moral obligation to speak out against the violence, and to speak out in favor of human life and the fact that all our lives are a treasure from - a gift from God. During the worst of the violence, a bishop, Don Renato, he invited us all to make of our parishes places where people could go there, be safe. And I believe that in the main, we've been able to do that.

MARTIN: I know I've been asking about how the - your parishioners feel about the pope's visit. Do you mind if I ask you? How are you?

MULLINS: I'm delighted. It'll be a long day. There'll be - it's going to be a hot, sunny day, but I've never seen the pope. I look forward to listening to him, and I certainly admire him. He's a very compassionate person, and I think he's the right man at the right time.

MARTIN: That was Father Kevin Mullins. He serves in the Juarez Diocese. He spoke to us from Juarez, Mexico. Father Kevin, thanks so much for speaking with us.

MULLINS: My pleasure, my pleasure, Michel. God bless, and take care of yourself.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Pope Francis Reflects on His Life and Mortality in Memoir

Pope Francis' new book "Life: My Story Through History" is pictured in this illustration picture taken on March 15, 2024. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/Illustration

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, at 87 increasingly weak and wobbly, takes a trip down memory lane and speaks of his hopes for the Roman Catholic Church's future in a new book reflecting on his life and its intersection with major world events.

"Life - My Story Through History," a memoir written with Italian journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona and published by HarperCollins, goes on sale on March 19, the 11th anniversary of Francis' installation as the first Latin American pope.

While offering little that is new, the 230-page book is a breezy, conversational-style read starting with his childhood in Buenos Aires to today.

It is punctuated by events including World War Two, the Holocaust, the Cold War, the 1969 Moon landing, the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, the September 11, 2001 attacks and the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.

Francis, whose health recently has shown signs of strain with successive bouts of bronchitis, a spate of hospital stays and difficulty walking, repeats that he has no intention of resigning like his predecessor unless "a serious physical impediment were to arise".

He jokes that while some of his conservative critics "may have hoped" he would have announced a resignation after a hospital stay, there is little or no risk of it because "there are many projects to bring to fruition, God willing".

He again defends his recent decision to allow blessings for people in same-sex relationships, reiterating that they are not blessings for the union itself but of individuals "who seek the Lord but are rejected or persecuted".

The Church, he says, does "not have the power to change the sacraments created by the Lord" and that "this (the blessings) does not mean that the Church is in favour of same-sex marriage".

HOPING FOR AN EMBRACING CHURCH

Addressing the controversy about the recent ruling, he says: "I imagine a mother Church that embraces and welcomes everyone, even those who feel they are in the wrong and have been judged by us in the past".

Francis writes that even if some bishops refuse to offer blessings for those in same-sex relationships, as in Africa, "it doesn't mean that this is the antechamber to schism, because the Church's doctrine is not brought into question".

Throughout the book he leans on historical events as backdrops to make appeals relating to current, sometimes similar, situations.

Speaking of World War Two, he writes that still today "Jews continue to be stereotyped and persecuted. This is not Christian; it's not even human. When will we understand that these are our brothers and sisters?"

In recalling when he first heard of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan at the end of the war, he writes: "The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is a crime against humanity, against human dignity, and against any possibility of a future in our shared home."

Reflecting on the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States by Islamists, Francis says, "It is blasphemous to use the name of God to justify slaughter, murder, terrorist attack, the persecution of individuals and entire populations - as some still do. Nobody can invoke the name of the Lord to wreak evil."

The pope dismisses as "fantasy, obviously invented", recent reports by conservative American Catholic media that he would change the rules of conclaves to allow nuns and lay people to enter conclaves to choose future popes.

On the lighter side, Francis speaks of the controversial "Hand of God" goal by compatriot Diego Maradona in Argentina's 1986 World Cup soccer quarter-final against England, which the referee allowed as he did not have a clear view showing that Maradona had used his hand.

Years later, when Maradona visited the pope at the Vatican, "I asked him, jokingly, 'So, which is the guilty hand?'" Francis writes.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; editing by Mark Heinrich)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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Pope urges the church to see the face of Christ in migrants

A Venezuelan migrant is seen from Piedras Negras, Mexico, Sept. 30, 2023, while walking through the Rio Grande in an attempt to cross into Texas to seek asylum in the United States. (OSV News/Daniel Becerril, Reuters)

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The Catholic Church can draw closer to Jesus by accompanying migrants in their pursuit of a better life, Pope Francis said.

In the faces of migrants, the church "discovers the face of Christ," he wrote, and like St. Veronica who offered a cloth to wipe Jesus' face during his passion, the church "brings relief and hope on the 'Way of the Cross' of migration."

The pope wrote his comments in a letter March 21 to participants at a meeting between bishops, church officials and migrants in Lajas Blancas, Panama, near the Darién Gap jungle crossed by thousands of migrants each day. The meeting took place during a three-day conference organized by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development for bishops from Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama to discuss accompanying migrants.

Migrant brothers and sisters "represent the suffering flesh of Christ" since they are "forced to leave their land, to face the risks and tribulations of a hard road without finding another way out," Francis wrote in his message to the group.

Bishops and other members of the church who support migrants "are the face of a mother church that walks with her sons and daughters," he wrote.

Francis urged the migrants to "never forget about your human dignity," and encouraged them to "not be afraid to look others in the eye, because you are not discarded, but you form part of the human family and the family of God's children."

"I also am the son of migrants who left in search of a better future," the pope told them, referencing his upbringing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the child of Italian immigrants. "There were times when they were left with nothing, even starving, with their hands empty but their hearts full of hope."

The meeting of church officials and migrants took place outside of the Darién Gap jungle that straddles the Panama-Colombia border. Record numbers of migrants have risked their lives to cross the Darién Gap in recent months, subjected to rampant extortion, physical abuse and sexual violence by criminal gangs. More than 500,000 people crossed the gap in 2023, according to data published by the Panamanian government.

In a message to the bishops a day earlier, Francis had written that the church's pastors must break free from indifference in addressing the crisis of forced migration across the Americas and that every migrant challenges Christians to embrace a spirit of hospitality.

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El Paso plans for Pope Francis' visit to U.S.-Mexico border

January 26, 2016 / 9:00 PM EST / CBS/AP

EL PASO, Texas -- Declaring it an "unparalleled high profile event," the El Paso City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a set of plans for Pope Francis' visit to neighboring Ciudad Juárez.

The pope is not scheduled to visit El Paso, but because of the proximity of his motorcade route and mass to the El Paso-Juárez border, the city of El Paso says it will restrict travel in downtown and South-Central El Paso, CBS affiliate KDBC reported .

Leaders say the pope's visit to Juárez at the end of a five-day tour of Mexico will draw hundreds of thousands to both cities.

El Paso's plans include closing a portion of a major border highway, several downtown neighborhoods and city government for the day. The city estimates this will cost nearly $1 million in city services, salaries and equipment. At least two El Paso school districts are also closing the day of the visit, scheduled for Feb. 17.

"This is such a positive thing for our community," El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said. "I'll tell everyone, El Paso is Juárez and Juárez is El Paso."

Many El Paso residents work in Juárez and vice versa. Although Pope Francis won't be crossing over to El Paso, the city is prepping for the many who will attempt to hear a Mass held on a large Juárez field next to the international boundary. The Catholic Diocese of El Paso is hosting a live-stream public viewing event at the Sun Bowl, a stadium that holds over 50,000 people. The event will include musical performances and will cost $18 per person.

The council voted unanimously on four measures that help police and other emergency responders plan their response to the visit.

Rep. Cortney Carlisle Niland said she was concerned about the large number of residential streets being shut down.

"It's a tremendous amount of residents," said Niland, who added that it's a social justice issue for the largely low-income neighborhood along the international border to be shut down.

City manager Tommy Gonzalez said the city was doing community outreach, including door-to-door notifications to residents in the areas affected by closures.

El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said the papal visit poses a number of public safety issues not only in Juárez but in El Paso.

"One of the reasons we're controlling that area is to protect that area itself," Allen said. "Unfortunately this is not the ideal situation that we're dealing with. We're gonna have to respond to something that's not even in our country."

The public safety response encompasses local, state and federal officials. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Air and Marine Operations will be in the air and coordinating aviation law enforcement actions. Border Patrol agents will also be assisting.

All ports of entry will be open, staffed with extra officers and opened for longer hours, but Customs and Border Protection says residents should expect long wait times regardless.

The pontiff's visit is especially significant in a largely Catholic region. Over 80 percent of El Paso residents are Hispanic, and nearly 35 percent of Hispanics are Catholic, according to the Pew Research Center.

Preparations are also in full swing in Juárez, which also expects large crowds for the visit. In Ciudad Juarez, advertisements for Pope Francis' upcoming trip are all over the city, especially near its main cathedral.

Images of the pope are shown with the words "Ciudad Juarez is love" in an attempt to transform the city's image as a drug violence-ridden one.

The pope is expected to discuss immigration to the U.S. and poverty on both sides of the border.

More from CBS News

Pope Francis has not accepted an invitation to meet with Vladimir Putin in Russia

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has not accepted an invitation to travel to Moscow in June to meet with Vladimir Putin, the director of the Holy See press office said.

A report on the website of Intelligence Online, a French journal, “does not correspond to the truth,” Matteo Bruni told reporters March 20.

A story on the website March 19 had said Ivan Soltanovsky, the Russian ambassador to the Holy See, invited the pope to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow in June, “an invitation that the pope accepted,” Intelligence Online had reported.

The journal said the pope, who repeatedly has been invited to visit Ukraine, would travel to Kyiv immediately after visiting Moscow.

After Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Pope Francis said he would be willing to accept the invitation of the Ukrainian government to visit, but only if he could visit Moscow as well.

Earlier the Russian news agency RIA Novosti had reported that Pope Francis had congratulated Putin on his victory in the presidential election March 17, an election Western observers described as rigged. Bruni had told Catholic News Service March 18 that the report was not true.

The Vatican has repeatedly offered to act as a mediator between Ukraine and Russia, and last year Pope Francis sent his peace envoy for Ukraine, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, to Kyiv, Moscow, Washington and Beijing to meet with foreign leaders and advance peace talks on Ukraine.

In early March, however, the pope caused consternation when segments of an interview were released in which he said Russia and Ukraine need to have the “courage of the white flag” to halt the fighting and negotiate.

The phrase “white flag” usually refers to surrendering, and Ukrainian leaders were outraged.

Pope Francis was not asking Ukraine to consider surrendering to Russia when he called for negotiations to end the war, but he was calling for both Russia and Ukraine to cease hostilities and engage in peace talks, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

At the end of his weekly general audience March 20, praying for peace in Ukraine and in the Holy Land, Pope Francis said, “War is always a defeat.”

“We must make every effort to discuss, to negotiate to end war,” he said. “Let’s pray for this.”

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Pope Francis addresses migrant crisis in Darien Gap: ‘Every refugee challenges us’

By Matthew Santucci

Rome Newsroom, Mar 20, 2024 / 15:15 pm

Pope Francis on Wednesday sent a letter to the bishops of Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica highlighting the need to develop greater pastoral care and initiatives to assist migrants who travel through the treacherous Darien Gap.

“As Christians, every refugee and migrant who leaves his or her homeland challenges us,” the pope wrote. “In our villages we find at the same time the hospitable fraternity that welcomes with human sensitivity, but also, unfortunately, the indifference that stains the Darién with blood.”

The pope’s message comes as bishops from the episcopal conferences of the three countries conclude a four-day meeting in Panama titled “Easter with Our Migrant Brothers and Sisters,” focused on the Catholic Church’s pastoral outreach and services amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Central America. 

The 100-mile-long Darien Gap, located on the border between Panama and Colombia, is one of the world’s most trafficked — and dangerous — migratory pathways. 

The sparsely populated jungled region (the only overland passage connecting Central and South America) has no paved roads nor basic infrastructure in place to facilitate the passage of migrants.

Yet many migrants remained undeterred in making the journey north, despite the treacherous conditions, risk of disease, and death, as well as mounting pressure from the Biden administration on Latin American governments to halt crossings. 

According to figures released by the Panamanian government, the number of migrants who passed through the Darien Gap reached a record high of 520,000 in 2023, more than double the number who came in 2022.

“Neither the dangers posed by transit and illegal blackmail nor the increasing returns or stalemates in countries where these brothers and sisters are not wanted diminish the attraction (real or illusory) of satisfying the needs of employment and better living conditions, or even of a hoped-for family reunification,” Francis wrote to the bishops this week.

But the pope also noted that it is a “pastoral opportunity” so migrants can “find in the Church a place where he or she will not feel judged but welcomed, where hunger and thirst can be quenched and hope revived.” 

While acknowledging the extensive network of humanitarian services already provided by the Catholic Church — including shelters, returnee centers, medical care, legal advice, and spiritual support — the pope stressed that pastors and those in the service of migrants should “go beyond the limits of the established.”

Pope Francis encouraged the bishops to confront the myriad challenges presented by the influx of migrants by developing a unified, regional approach. The pope stressed that meeting the immediate needs of migrants does preclude longer-term solutions that would ameliorate the structural issues behind the migration crisis.

“I recalled that the right not to migrate is presented to us as a solution, albeit a long-term one, to forced migration, through the regional integration of countries of expulsion, transit, destination, and return of migrants,” the pope wrote.

“I urge you, therefore, to join forces with all the bodies of the international community so that everyone may have the right to remain in their homeland with a dignified and peaceful life.”

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“War is always a defeat. You can’t go on in war. We must make all efforts to negotiate, to negotiate, to end the war. Let’s pray for this,” the pope said Wednesday.

U.S. and Mexican bishops present proposals to help migrants

The Catholic bishops of the Mexico-Texas border region issued a joint call Jan. 10 to improve the situation of migrants and their families.

Pope Francis is out to prove he’s just a regular guy

In a new memoir, ‘life: my story through history,’ and a self-help book, ‘a good life,’ the pope reinforces his image as approachable.

It seems hard to believe that just a few short popes ago (and in the centuries preceding) no one, including Catholics, had any real connection with the human running things from the throne of Saint Peter in Rome.

Popes stayed in Italy and didn’t travel, and low-level technology meant Catholics didn’t expect to see or hear from them. Popes would put out authoritative documents now and then called “encyclicals,” but it took time for the messages to trickle out. And even then, average Catholics didn’t usually read the pope’s words; they didn’t feel qualified to interpret them.

Catholics didn’t define themselves like many do today — especially in polarized America — by their affinity to the pope.

No one has done more to make real the face of the papacy than Argentine priest Jorge Mario Bergoglio, otherwise known as Pope Francis. He approves apps that offer his sayings in quippy form, gives chatty interviews, and is known for eschewing fancy homes and clothing. Instead, he takes public transportation, wears clunky orthotic shoes, and says such things as “I am a sinner — that’s not a figure of speech” and, of gay people, “Who am I to judge?”

This radical approachability has become a hallmark since Francis took office in 2013, redrawing the face of the 1.4 billion-person Catholic Church. Many people have loved and been profoundly moved by this change, seeing Francis as a symbol of an outward-looking church focused on accessibility, intimate connection and inclusivity. Many others oppose his frequent blurring of lines, saying he’s harming the church by making the papacy smaller.

In two new books, Francis takes concrete steps toward setting this everyman-pope in stone for literary history. Through “Life,” which will publish Tuesday and is described as his first crack at autobiography, and a second book, called “A Good Life: 15 Essential Habits for Living With Hope and Joy,” the 87-year-old is making it really official: The pope is just a guy.

He’s a guy who is hovering in the late stage of his life. Considering his age and health challenges, and that his predecessor retired, who will succeed Francis is already a topic of speculation among Catholics. In “Life,” Francis says he believes the pope’s ministry is for life and, thus, he would retire only in the case of “a serious physical impediment.” For me, as someone who reports on religion, the book’s informal and accessible style is part of why it’s challenging to picture the next pope being more remote.

“ Life: My Story Through History ” is a chronicle of Francis’s life organized through major world events, from World War II and Argentina’s Dirty War to the 9/11 attacks and the coronavirus pandemic. It intersperses Francis’s words with those of his co-author, Italian journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona, setting rich scenes of the pontiff’s daily life with his description of how he experienced those periods, with whom and how he reflects on them now.

The publisher says the book is aimed at young people in particular, and it shows. The structure is simple, as is the language. Also, it has an almost wow-I-can’t-believe-this-is-my-life vibe as Francis looks back on everything he has been through and pulls from it repeated core lessons.

For the most part, he presents these lessons in a secular, universal way. That’s not to say he doesn’t communicate his theology and faith. Through the book, he frequently speaks of the role of the church, prayer and his feeling of God’s presence. But there is also a thread woven through the book: I am like you, and the Catholic Church isn’t about the trappings you see. And as Francis tries, in his final era as pope, to shift the direction of the church, perhaps this book is trying — in a different way — to say something more like what you expect from a pope: God is like you, and the Catholic Church isn’t about the trappings you see.

Francis describes one of the most famous visual moments of his papacy, at the start of the pandemic, when he stood in a hauntingly empty St. Peter’s Square in the rain to deliver a blessing.

“Many have wondered what I was thinking about … it was nothing remarkable; I was just thinking about people’s loneliness. I was alone, and many people were living in the same situation as me,” he writes.

One of his lessons is that all living things are interconnected, no matter how far away we are from one another. He drives that home through his own experience, as the terrified child Bergoglio, watching scared adults around him during World War II, even as the fighting was taking place in a distant country, and later, as the Buenos Aires archbishop, immediately going into prayer when planes slammed into the World Trade Center.

Another central lesson in the book is that the most important thing we can do to lessen suffering is to eradicate hate and resentment inside ourselves. Many of his chapters are organized around products of war and hate: the Holocaust, the U.S. dropping of atomic bombs on Japan during World War II, political division and violence during the pandemic. The book was created, its jacket says, so young people could hear an older person “reflect on what our planet has lived through, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past.”

It’s not clear that the stories or core characters in “Life” will be new to people who have read the detailed interviews Francis has given to European journalists, or biographies of him. There are familiar characters, including his Grandma Rosa, who taught him about prayer as well as political activism, as she helped defend the church against the rise of fascism in Argentina. There’s his former teacher Esther, a biochemist who was also an atheist Marxist activist and who became a close friend before she was tortured and murdered by the military regime during the Dirty War.

The world is seen through the eyes of this sincere first-person narrator, who expresses real vulnerability and sadness watching immigrants like his parents yearn for home (in their case, Italy), who tangos with his friends and falls for a girl, and who, during the 2013 conclave that elects him, is terrified to enter the room where people are voting because he’s scared he won. Francis had booked the tightest flight itinerary available because he didn’t like Rome and planned to hustle home.

The second new book, “ A Good Life: 15 Essential Habits for Living With Hope and Joy ,” published last month, reinforces the image of Francis as everyman. The book is part of a genre of Francis guidance that comes bite-sized. One could put it in the category of the snappy, often God-free tweets he posts to his 55 million-plus followers on the X platform, and previous books with such titles as “ Pope Francis Talks to Couples ” and “ Happiness in This Life: A Passionate Meditation on Earthly Existence .”

These titles are a stark contrast to some of the books of Pope Benedict XVI — “ Spirit of the Liturgy ” and “ Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine ” — and Pope John Paul II’s books, mostly official papal teachings, such as “On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason” or “On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering.”

“Pope Benedict was a theologian and wrote like one. Pope John Paul was a philosopher and wrote like one. Pope Francis is neither,” the Rev. Mark-David Janus, president and publisher of the Catholic publishing house Paulist Press, which has published more than a dozen books by Francis, told The Washington Post. “He’s a pastor, so he writes as a pastor.”

Indeed, the legacy Francis leaves in books like these isn’t a radically different theology than that of his predecessors but a radically different emphasis and style. “A Good Life” interests itself in pragmatic, basic ways to improve yourself — Catholic or not. Cry more. Shut off your phone and look in the eyes of the people to whom you’re talking. Don’t be a couch potato.

This is the kind of advice you might expect from a wellness podcast, your Peloton teacher or even Joel Osteen. Popes have been expected to be above that kind of crowd, the elevated embodiment of a truth that is allowed — in love, they’d say — to be judgmental and exclusionary. Francis has used his stature to emphasize different truths in a different way.

My Story Through History

By Pope Francis with Fabio Marchese Ragona. Translated from Italian by Aubrey Botsford

Harper One. 240 pp. $28.99

A Good Life

15 Habits for Living With Hope and Joy

By Pope Francis

Worthy Books. 208 pp. $28

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