Pope Francis: 'No more death, no more exploitation'
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis
celebrated Holy
Mass on Wednesday at Mexico's northern border, and spoke of the
thousands of migrants who have died trying to reach the United States.
As Veronica Scarisbrick
reports he appealed for governments to open their hearts, if not their borders,
to the 'human tragedy that is forced migration' and he implored: `No more
death! No more exploitation!'
Ciudad Juarez in northern
Mexico would appear to be on the “wrong side of the border”.It’s here that
thousands of immigrants, today mostly from Central America, attempt to cross
over to ‘El Norte’, on the “right side of the border” fleeing from extreme poverty
and violence in search of a better future.
Curious how in this land of
contrasts this desolate border rife with unspeakable violence, with its chain
link fence (the largest economic divide in the world) for some is a symbol of
hope.
It’s here that Pope Francis
in the course of his last homily in Mexico during Holy Mass on Wednesday 17th
of February highlighted the plight of thousands of migrants who reach
here by train or on foot, journeying for hundreds of kilometres across
mountains, deserts and inhospitable zones.
Upon his arrival at the venue
for the mass Pope Francis had knelt by a giant great black cross planted high
by the banks of the ‘Rio Grande’, on the border with the United States. It was
a moving moment in this place by the chain link fence where so many have lost
their lives attempting to cross over. And the Pope symbolically blessed a pair
of worn shoes and a pair of worn sandals placed there for the occasion. And
then stood for a moment looking out towards the United States where the crowds
pressed against the chain link fence waved from across the river.
And in his homily Francis had
powerful words: “No more death! No more exploitation! It’s not too late
for change, for a way out, a time to implore the mercy of God. In this Year of
Mercy, with you here, I beg for God’s mercy”, Pope Francis insisted, “With you
I wish to plead for the gift of tears, the gift of conversion”.
And then he went on to
highlight how the human tragedy that is forced migration is a global phenomenon
today. This crisis he said: “which can be measured in numbers and statistics,
should be measured instead with names, stories, families. They are the brothers
and sisters of those expelled by poverty and violence, by drug trafficking and
criminal organizations. Being faced with so many legal vacuums, they get
caught up in a web that ensnares and always destroys the poorest. Not
only do they suffer poverty but they must also endure these forms of violence.
Young people are “cannon fodder”, persecuted and threatened when they try to
flee the spiral of violence and the hell hole of drugs. And what can we say
about all the women who have been killed here”…
On this occasion in Ciudad
Juarez Pope Francis also mentioned the commitment of those who work on the
front lines, often at the risk of their lives in an effort to support the
rights of migrants describing them as prophets of mercy.
It is a time for conversion,
Pope Francis insisted, a time for conversion, a time for salvation, a time for
mercy.
With Pope Francis in Mexico,
I’m Veronica Scarisbrick
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