'A human tragedy': The Pope calls for action on America's migrant crisis

[superbeets]

'A human tragedy': The Pope calls for action on America's migrant crisis as THOUSANDS push up against the US side of the border fence to see him speak just a few feet away in Mexico

• Looking over the Rio Grande, Francis railed against immigration policies in what was once the world's deadliest city
• He walked up to a cross erected in Ciudad Juarez in memory of migrants who have perished crossing the border
• It was the closest the pope came to the U.S. border during his six-day visit to Mexico
• He then celebrated Mass just 80 yards (73 meters) from the border crossing in a fairground
• People wildly applauded when Francis thanked 'brothers and sisters from El Paso for making us feel like one family and the same Christian community'

By REUTERS
PUBLISHED: 03:04, 18 February 2016 | UPDATED: 08:12, 18 February 201

Pope Francis greeted his 'brothers and cities from El Paso' as he prayed on the US-Mexico border and called for action to address the migrant crisis.
The pontiff railed against immigration policies, describing them as the cause of a 'human tragedy' that forces many underground and into the hands of drug gangs and human smugglers.
The head of the Catholic Church also called for an end to the exploitation of migrant workers as he stood and addressed tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Rio Grande in what was once one of the world's deadliest cities.
He walked up a ramp lined with flowers to a cross erected in Ciudad Juarez in memory of migrants who have perished trying to reach the United States just a stone's throw away.
There he blessed three small crosses which will be sent to the dioceses of El Paso, Ciudad Juarez and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Shoes of migrants who died were laid beside them.
The somber moment continued as he touched on the 'humanitarian crisis' of immigration to the United States.
Overlooking the Rio Grande, it was the closest the pope came to the U.S. border during his six-day visit to Mexico.

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Pope Francis greeted his 'brothers and cities from El Paso' as he celebrated a historic mass on the US-Mexico border

 

[superbeets]

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The pontiff railed against immigration policies that force many underground and into the hands of drug gangs and human smugglers, praying in what was once one of the world's deadliest cities that lies on the Rio Grande

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He waves next to the US border before celebrating mass at the Ciudad Juarez fairgrounds in Chihuahua state

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He walked up a ramp lined with flowers to a cross erected in Ciudad Juarez in memory of migrants who have perished trying to reach the United States just a stone's throw away

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He smiled as he approached the divide between America and Mexico. Francis looked happier than he did on Tuesday, when he was almost pulled into a crowd by eager worshippers

 

[superbeets]

He then celebrated Mass just 80 yards (73 meters) from the border crossing in a fairground, connected via video link to faithful gathered at a university stadium in El Paso.
At the stadium, people wildly applauded when Francis thanked 'brothers and sisters from El Paso for making us feel like one family and the same Christian community.'
'We cannot deny the humanitarian crisis,' the pope said shortly before he wrapped up his six-day visit to Mexico and took off for Rome. 'Each step, a journey laden with grave injustices: the enslaved, the imprisoned and extorted; so many of these brothers and sisters of ours are the consequence of trafficking in human beings.'
'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,' he added.
A major manufacturing center, the gritty industrial city of Ciudad Juarez has been hammered by drug violence in recent years. It also an important crossing for Mexicans, Central Americans and Asians trying to reach the United States illegally.
Most in Ciudad Juarez are of modest means. Business leaders in the city say about 70 percent of people in the city, a major low-cost manufacturing center, earn less than 210 pesos (11 USD) a day. The official minimum wage in Mexico is 73 pesos per day.
The pope's focus on the plight of migrants who risk murder, rape and extortion as they head north, comes as the number of Central American children and families apprehended at the border rises, in a spike reminiscent of a 2014 flood of migrants that created a major political headache for U.S. President Barack Obama.
Immigration reform remains one of the most divisive issues in U.S. politics, and a key theme in the 2016 presidential vote.
The pope's stance is starkly at odds with the anti-immigrant rhetoric of candidates for the 2016 Republican U.S. presidential nomination.

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Overlooking the Rio Grande that separates the two countries, it was the closest the pope came to the U.S. border during his six-day trip to Mexico before returning home to Rome

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'We cannot deny the humanitarian crisis,' the pope said shortly before he wrapped up his six-day visit to Mexico and took off for Rome

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People wait to get a glimpse of Pope Francis as he arrives to celebrate an outdoor mass in Ciudad Juarez

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People push and shove forward as they enter the spectator's area ahead of Pope Francis' mass

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He is seen through the U.S. border fence along the banks of the Rio Grande, where thousands have died trying to cross

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Security guards run alongside the popemobile transporting him to the ramp where he could look at both sides of the border

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A woman holding a child is led away by police after she tried to stop the motorcade of Pope Francis as he arrived in Ciudad Juarez

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She is seen on her hands and knees on the floor in the arms of a security guard

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Thousands of people have their cell phones and cameras at the ready, waiting for the Pope to pass through

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Seminarians arrive for a mass by for Pope Francis next to he US border, at the Ciudad Juarez fairgrounds

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He blessed members of the crowd along parts of the security barriers. Tens of thousands of people crossed over the border from El Paso, Texas, to hear the pope

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A security guard holds up a camera as the pontiff slowly greets the crowd on the roof of his popemobile

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Migrants gathered next to a border fence in El Paso, Texas, watch as the historic mass unfolded in their home country

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Two migrants hold up a sign reading '43' in reference to the students who disappeared from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College in 2014

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The faithful strain for a glimpse of the Pope as he arrives for afternoon mass in Juarez, Mexico

 

[superbeets]

Billionaire Donald Trump has surged ahead of his rivals with his message that Mexico is 'killing' the United States with cheap labor, while sending over criminals and rapists. He has also promised to build a huge border wall.
Trump last week dubbed the pope 'a very political person', saying he believed the Mexican government had put him up to the border visit.
'To suggest that the pope is an instrument of the Mexican government, no. That is very strange indeed,' said Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, shortly before the pontiff arrived in Ciudad Juarez.
'The pope always speaks of the problems of immigration. If Mr. Trump were to come to Europe he would see that the pope has said the same things about immigration to the Italians, the Germans, the French and the Hungarians.'
Tens of thousands of people crossed over the border from El Paso, Texas, to hear the pope, though that was far fewer than expected.

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Pope Francis waves from his popemobile as he leaves the fairgrounds in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, following his historic mass at the border

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View of a stage in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, near the US border, where Pope Francis prayed near the Rio Grande

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Texas Troopers keeps watch from a bridge in El Paso, Texas, as thousands of people from each side of the border gathered to witness the Pope in action

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Pope Francis waves as he boards a plane for Rome at the airport in Ciudad Juarez, bringing his four-day visit to an end

Earlier on Wednesday, the pope issued a scathing critique of capitalism, saying that God will hold accountable 'slave drivers' who exploit workers.
'The flow of capital cannot decide the flow of people,' the Argentine pontiff said, denouncing 'the exploitation of employees as if they were objects to be used and discarded'.
'God will hold the slave drivers of our days accountable,' he said.
The pope has in the past called money 'the dung of the devil' and has decried what he calls the 'evils' of unbridled capitalism, prompting criticism from U.S. business leaders.
He has visited some of the most marginalized areas of Mexico, urging young people in the violence-ridden state of Michoacan to avoid drug trafficking and taking a swipe at the country's rich and corrupt.
Earlier in the day, it emerged that a laser beam was pointed at his plane as he landed in Mexico City last week, though there was no harm to those aboard.

 

[superbeets]

Pope Francis smiles as he rides in a car along his route to the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican's diplomatic mission, in Mexico City

 

[Dave007inVegas]

The Pope is like a high profile politician, he talks a great deal but accomplishes very little.

 

[SheriffJoe]

Easy solution:

Send them to the Vatican.

 

[JDeuce]

Easy solution:

Send them to the Vatican.

Funny, was just going to say the same thing. We will get right on that, your Holiness...immediately after you reach max migrant capacity at the Vatican. I'm sure you'd have no problem taking them all in, right? Or better yet, maybe pony up some of the enormous and vast fortunes/treasures possessed by the church and buy them their own housing? It's hard to estimate the amount of wealth the church possesses, but I'd bet they would at least give a major cash-rich company like Apple a run for their money (no pun intended).

Oh, nahhh...they can't do that. Because being a dimocrap is about being very generous with other people's money. This fucking guy is a communist first...and being a Catholic is a distant second to him.

 

[SheriffJoe]

 

[superbeets]

[h=2]Pope attacks Trump saying he is 'not Christian' for Mexico wall plans - then Donald hits back calling Catholic leader 'disgraceful'[/h] NEW Donald Trump is 'not Christian' because of his inflammatory views on immigration, according to Pope Francis. The pontiff, speaking on his way back to the Vatican from Mexico, said: 'A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the gospel.' He was referring to the Republican presidential frontrunner's controversial plan to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. Asked if American Catholics should vote for someone with Trump's views, Francis, who delivered a controversial mass along the border on Wednesday, said: 'I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.' Trump, who says he is a Presbyterian Protestant, immediately fired back at a rally in South Carolina. 'For a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful,' he said.

- FEBRUARY 18, 2016 -

​DONALD J. TRUMP RESPONSE TO THE POPE

If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians.

The Mexican government and its leadership has made many disparaging remarks about me to the Pope, because they want to continue to rip off the United States, both on trade and at the border, and they understand I am totally wise to them. The Pope only heard one side of the story - he didn’t see the crime, the drug trafficking and the negative economic impact the current policies have on the United States. He doesn’t see how Mexican leadership is outsmarting President Obama and our leadership in every aspect of negotiation.

For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith. They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant.

 

[Dave007inVegas]

While Pope Francis is in the United States effectively advocating for a borderless America, many people are amused by the irony of the giant wall surrounding his own Vatican City.

 

[SheriffJoe]

face)(*^%

 

[neverbend]

face)(*^%

..
Looks like the pope is saying he himself is not a Christian considering his walled Castle
So the pope thinks Obama is a Christian because Obama although some suspect harbors
'prayer rugs' in the Whitehouse & absorbed the sermons of the wrong Reverend Wright is
a christian because Obama advocates 'Bridges not Walls'

Rick Perry sounds more logical than the new pope & that's saying something!

 

[The Guesser]

[h=1]The Pope Is Way More Popular Than Donald Trump[/h]By LEAH LIBRESCO and NATE SILVER

Pope Francis smiles upon arrival at the U.S. border before celebrating mass at the Ciudad Juarez fairgrounds on Wednesday.
GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP / GETTY IMAGES


Donald Trump took a break from threatening to sue rival candidates on Thursday and appears to be trying to start a holy war with Pope Francis instead. Trump may not care about any resulting eternal judgment, but he might have reason to worry about worldly opinion: Pope Francis has a net +53 favorability rating among Americans,[SUP]1[/SUP] while Trump has a net -27 favorability rating.[SUP]2[/SUP]
True, Pope Francis is somewhat less popular with Republicans than among Americans overall. But he’s still reasonably well-liked. In a CNN poll in September,[SUP]3[/SUP] 56 percent of Republicans had a favorable view of Pope Francis as compared to 21 percent with an unfavorable one. Francis had +20 net favorability rating even among self-described tea-party supporters.
For once, this is a fight that Trump didn’t start. Reporters asked Pope Francis, during one of the informal press conferences held on the papal plane[SUP]4[/SUP] what he thought of Trump’s position on building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Pope said that he wasn’t familiar with Trump’s position, but added, “I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that.”
The majority of conservative Catholics would probably agree with that assessment of Trump’s faith. According to a survey conducted in January by the Pew Research Center, just under half (49 percent) of Catholics who are Republicans or lean toward the GOP said that Trump was not very or not at all religious. That was the highest level of skepticism expressed by any of the denominations Pew surveyed. (White mainline Protestants were most likely to give Trump the benefit of the doubt; 35 percent judged him to be not very or not at all religious.)
However, a sizeable share of Catholics are open to seeing Trump in the White House, even if they don’t expect to see him in a pew. In Pew’s survey, 30 percent of all Catholics who are registered to vote said they felt that Trump would be a good or great president. That’s pretty much on par with registered voters in general (31 percent).[SUP]5[/SUP] In other words, Catholics are swing voters. In 2012, Catholics gave 50 percent of their votes to Barack Obama and 48 percent to Mitt Romney, according to the national exit poll.
Trump doesn’t need to worry as much about winning over Catholics in coming weeks. The next set of GOP primaries don’t occur in heavily Catholic states. Super Tuesday’s contests on March 1 will include Massachusetts, where Catholics made up 51 percent of Republican voters in 2008, but most of the upcoming states are in the South, where few Catholics reside.[SUP]6[/SUP]

STATE	WINNER AMONG CATHOLICS (2008)	CATHOLIC SHARE OF GOP ELECTORATE (2008)
New Jersey	McCain	57%
Massachusetts	Romney	51
New York	McCain	46
Connecticut	McCain	45
Wisconsin	McCain	39
New Hampshire	McCain/Romney tie	38
Vermont	McCain	35
Maryland	McCain	33
Louisiana	McCain	32
Illinois	McCain	31
Florida	McCain	30
Michigan	Romney	29
Delaware	McCain	28
Ohio	McCain	26
California	McCain	25
Missouri	McCain	20
Arizona	McCain	20
Virginia	McCain	19
Nevada	Romney	18
Texas	McCain	16
South Carolina	McCain	13
Oklahoma	**	11
Georgia	Romney	11
Mississippi	**	9
Tennessee	McCain	6
Arkansas	**	6
Alabama	**	5
Utah	**	3

Where are the Republican Catholics?

** Sample size too small to reliably determine winner among Catholics
SOURCE: EDISON/MITOFSKY NATIONAL ELECTION POOL EXIT POLLS, 2008
But although the Catholic-heavy states fall later, they could prove important to the delegate math. Many of their delegates are awarded on a winner-take-most (as in New York, where 46 percent of the Republican electorate was Catholic in 2008) or winner-take-all (as in New Jersey, Wisconsin andPennsylvania) basis.[SUP]7[/SUP] So if Trump doubles down on his fight with the Pope, he could wind up paying a price as he seeks to expand his coalition beyond his enthusiastic base — particularly given that he may already have a relatively low ceiling on his support. In 2008, another competitive primary (and one with more comprehensive exit polling than 2012), Catholics were an important part of John McCain’s coalition, and they’re a group that a candidate like Marco Rubio (who is Catholic) or John Kasich could come to rely upon this year.
Plus it’s just plain inaccurate to complain, as Trump did, that “for a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.” For someone whose titles include Vicar of Jesus Christ and Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, questioning and clarifying other people’s faith is pretty much the job description.

[h=2]Footnotes[/h]

• As of October 2015, just after the pope’s U.S. visit. His lowest net favorability according to Gallup polls was +43, in July 2015. ^
• According to Gallup’s Jan. 14-17 tracking poll. ^
• This was the most recent poll we could find that broke support for Pope Francis down by party. ^
• Still, presumably the leading cause of prayer in the Vatican press office. ^
• White evangelical Protestants are his biggest supporters, over half of whom (52 percent) think he’d be good or great. However, evangelical protestants lean more to the Republican Party than Catholics, generally, so their enthusiasm for Trump may be primarily a reflection of their party affiliation, not their faith. ^
• With the exception of Louisiana. ^
• Note that some of these delegates — in Wisconsin, for example — are awarded winner-take-all by congressional district rather than based on the statewide vote. ^

Leah Libresco is FiveThirtyEight’s news writer. @leahlibresco

Nate Silver is the founder and editor in chief of FiveThirtyEight. @natesilver538

 

[superbeets]

No holy war with Pope Francis. Period. Trump was crystal clear on CNN Republican Town Hall.

 

[superbeets]

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

 

[SheriffJoe]

'El Papa' embraces Raul Castro but calls Donald Trump anti-Christian!

By Silvio Canto, Jr.

Last Sunday, Pope Francis was in Mexico visiting sick children in hospitals. It was amazing to watch him holding the little kids and praying with their mothers. As a Catholic, I was so proud of "El Papa."

That was El Papa being El Papa, or the religious leader of my faith. He was reaching out to kids and their mothers and giving them some hope.

As he left Mexico, Pope Francis made a terrible mistake by saying that Donald Trump is not a Christian. I am not sure if he was answering a question or speaking at a meeting. He had finished a Mass on the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez border.

First, El Papa should stay away from presidential elections, here, there, and everywhere.

Second, the Vatican is one gigantic place surrounded by walls.

Third, is a border now un-Christian? How did we get to the point that defending borders and promoting legal immigration is now inhumane?

Fourth, El Papa has given Mr. Trump a huge gift. I am not a Trump supporter, but I believe that the U.S. has every right to protect and defend its borders. I don't know whether building a wall from Laredo to San Diego is the best answer. However, it may work in some isolated regions currently used by cartels to bring drugs and people.

Last, but not least, El Papa just visited Cuba. He hugged and embraced Raúl Castro, a man who has executed priests, harassed religious leaders, and closed Christian schools years ago. Did he call the Castro brothers un-Christian?

Pope Francis is a good man, but he needs a few people around him to protect him from himself.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog...donald_trump_antichristian.html#ixzz40d6j98j1
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

 

[SheriffJoe]

Can we call Pope Francis the worst Pope ever, or must we still wait on that?

 

[superbeets]

+8



Retreat: The Vatican's official spokesman raised the white flag in a radio interview in which he said the Pope was not personally attacking Trump, and was reacting to what he had been told about the billionaire's plans

[h=3]THE GREAT WALL CLIMB-DOWN[/h]'This wasn't in any way a personal attack, nor an indication of who to vote for.
The Pope has clearly said he didn't want to get involved in the electoral campaign in the US, and also said that he said what he said on the basis of what he was told [about Trump], hence giving him the benefit of the doubt.
The Pope said what we already know, if we followed his teaching and positions: We shouldn't build walls, but bridges.
He has always said that, continuously. He also said that in relation to migration in Europe many times.
So this is not a specific issue, limited to this particular case.
It's his generic view, coherent with the nature of solidarity from the Gospel.'
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi



.

 

[Dave007inVegas]

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Tom Hagen?