‘God will hold accountable the enslavers of our day’
MEXICO | CIUDAD JUAREZ — Pope Francis concluded an emotional, provocative journey through Mexico on Wednesday, symbolically tracing the path of migrants headed for the United States and ending up at the border that divides and unites two societies.
Thousands of people gathered on both sides of the border to say Mass with the pope and hear his message of the need for fair wages, human dignity and an end to the violence convulsing Mexico.
The pope did not cross into the United States but stayed in Ciudad Juarez. But his message was clearly intended for both sides.
Blunt talk
Speaking earlier in the day and in the same blunt style that has characterized all of his speeches in Mexico, he advocated for fair pay and reasonable workloads to an audience that included workers from the “maquiladoras,” or factories, as well as their owners and other members of the business elite.
The minimum wage in Juarez is less than $5 a day, and hours are long. He listened as one woman, Deysi Flores Gamez, complained that parents toil such long days and nights, they can’t care properly for their children, who often stray into a life of crime.
“God will hold accountable the enslavers of our day,” he said, speaking in his native Spanish.
Juarez sits across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, where people also were gathering to hear the pope via large television screens. Some approached the levee that marks the U.S. spot closest to Mexico on the river’s banks.
Prison visit
Earlier, the pope visited a notorious prison here, saying he could not ignore the most marginalized of Mexican society and blasting a culture that incarcerates those trapped “in a cycle of violence and crime.”
“We have already lost many decades thinking and believing that everything will be resolved by isolating, separating, incarcerating and ridding ourselves of problems, believing that these policies really solve problems,” the pope said after hearing a female inmate speak on behalf of the prison’s population and embracing her.
“We have forgotten to focus on what must truly be our concern: people’s lives; their lives, those of their families, and those who have suffered because of this cycle of violence,” he said.
“From inside this prison,” the pope continued, “you must work hard to change the situations which create the most exclusion. Speak with your loved ones, tell them of your experiences, help them to put an end to this cycle of violence and exclusion.
“The one who has suffered the greatest pain, and we could say ‘has experienced hell,’ can become a prophet in society. Work so that this society which uses people and discards them will not go on claiming victims.”
In a moment of silent prayer at the end of the pope’s message, some of the inmates could be seen weeping.
Migrant route
Ciudad Juarez is a city that is coping with all of Mexico’s troubles: killing, drug trafficking, poverty, corruption and, especially, the often-perilous migration of Mexicans to the United States.
Francis designed his trip through Mexico to replicate the route migrants take: southern Chiapas state, where Central Americans arrive on their way to the U.S.; Michoacan, source of a large percentage of Mexican immigrants to Southern California and elsewhere; and, now, the border.
Wrapping up his six-day trip through Mexico, the pope prayed along the border, giving recognition to those who attempt to cross, even as he urged Mexico to become a nation where it was safe “to dream” and not have to abandon.