Suffering and hope ahead of papal visit

Bishops say Pope Francis must be told the truth about the “unprecedented” violence and misery in Mexico during his five-day visit that begins next Friday.

The message is set out in a leading article in Desde la Fe, the Archdiocese of Mexico City newspaper. “His Holiness will be in violent, poor and miserable places and the [state] governors cannot try to cover the sun with their finger. There will be rubbish under the red carpet,” says the article.

“Bloody events seem to be commonplace, everyday occurrences ruthlessly whipped up by organised crime … This carries on despite [government] crusades and programmes, strategies and security plans.”

Quoting UN figures, the bishops describe the “rampant” violence against women and the numbers of children who have disappeared or been murdered in recent years.

Meanwhile, Columban missionaries working in the tense Mexico-US border region are involved in preparations for a huge outdoor Mass to be celebrated by Pope Francis in the city of Ciudad Juárez on 17 February.

Fr Kevin Mullins, parish priest of Corpus Christi church, which faces El Paso, Texas, across the Rio Grande river, told The Tablet: “In this Year of Mercy, we are all eager to listen to his message of God’s mercy to all peoples, particularly in a city where mercy has been notably absent in recent years.”

Behind the altar, the fence that separates the two countries will be visible. Fr Mullins’ parish is preparing two teams of altar servers and crowd-control teams to assist nearly half a million people expected in Juárez.

Francis is expected to walk to the edge of the Rio Grande and pray for the more than 6,000 people who lost their lives trying to cross the border from Mexico in the past 15 years. The churches are critical of the tactics of US immigration agents to apprehend some of the more than 100,000 families who attempted the crossing last year, along with thousands of unaccompanied minors.

Over the US border, Fr Bob Mosher, of the Columban Mission Center in El Paso, reports that the Mass will be streamed live to a stadium in the city.