VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXVI - # 34
DATE 18-02-2016
Summary:
- To the detainees of CeReSo 3 in Cuidad Juarez: those who have experienced
hell
can be prophets for society
- Francis to the world of work: "God will hold enslavers to account"
- Mass in Ciudad Juarez: no more death and exploitation
- The Pope leaves Mexico: many lights proclaim hope in the Mexican people
___________________________________________________________
To the detainees of CeReSo 3 in Cuidad Juarez: those who have experienced hell
can be prophets for society
Vatican City, 17 February 2016 (VIS) - Yesterday at 10 a.m. local time (6 p.m.
in Rome) the Holy Father began the last leg of his apostolic trip in Mexico:
Ciudad Juarez, for two centuries the only land passage to the United States.
Indeed, Cuidad Juarez is situated on the Rio Grande, facing the Texan city of
El
Paso. The two form a metropolitan area with two million inhabitants. It is a
very developed industrial centre and, according to various statistics, one of
the most violent cities in the world, due principally to drug trafficking
across
the border with the United States. It also has around 950 armed gangs with tens
of thousands of members, and is home to hundreds of Mexican gang members
deported from the United States. During the last four years of the drugs war,
212,000 inhabitants - or around 18 per cent of the population - abandoned the
city. Ciudad Juarez is sadly renowned for the disappearance of thousands of
women, typically from poor families, who worked in the maquiladoras
(clandestine
factories). The theme of the abduction and murder of these women has featured
in
literature and cinema, and various associations have been established to defend
women, including "Nuestras hijas de regreso a casa" ("Bring our daughters back
home").
The Holy Father began his day in Ciudad Juarez with a visit to the CeReSo 3
penitentiary, which formed part of a project for the requalification of the
penal institutions of the State of Chihuahua, and has been awarded for its
observance of international norms in the field. It houses three thousand
detainees including a limited number of women. Upon arrival Francis greeted the
families of some of the inmates, and proceeded to the chapel where he was
awaited by staff and the priests of the penitentiary's pastoral service, to
whom
he addressed some words of thanks for their work. "You encounter much
fragility.
Therefore I would like to offer you this fragile image", he said, referring to
the crystal crucifix he gave to the Centre to commemorate his visit. "Crystal
is
fragile, it breaks easily. Christ on the Cross represents the greatest
fragility
of humanity; however it is this fragility that saves us, that helps us, that
enables us to keep going and opens the doors of hope. It is my wish that each
one of you, with the blessing of the Virgin and contemplating the fragility of
Christ Who died to save us, sowing seeds of hope and resurrection".
He was awaited in the Centre's main courtyard by seven hundred detainees, of
whom he greeted around fifty in person. One of them gave a testimony in which
he
affirmed that the presence of the Holy Father was a call to mercy especially
for
those who had lost hope in their rehabilitation and for those who had forgotten
that there are human beings in prison. Francis then addressed those present,
remarking first that he could not have left "without greeting you and
celebrating with you the Jubilee of Mercy", adding that mercy "embraces
everyone
and is found in every corner of the world. There is no place beyond the reach
of
his mercy, no space or person it cannot touch".
"Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy with you is recalling the pressing journey
that we must undertake in order to break the 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. 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".
"Divine Mercy reminds us that prisons are an indication of the kind of society
we are. In many cases they are a sign of the silence and omissions which have
led to a throwaway culture, a symptom of a culture that has stopped supporting
life, of a society that has abandoned its children. Mercy reminds us that
reintegration does not begin here within these walls; rather it begins before,
it begins 'outside', in the streets of the city. Reintegration or
rehabilitation
begins by creating a system which we could call social health, that is, a
society which seeks not to cause sickness, polluting relationships in
neighbourhoods, schools, town squares, the streets, homes and in the whole of
the social spectrum. A system of social health that endeavours to promote a
culture which acts and seeks to prevent those situations and pathways that end
in damaging and impairing the social fabric".
"At times it may seem that prisons are intended more to prevent people from
committing crimes than to promote the process of rehabilitation that allows us
to address the social, psychological and family problems which lead a person to
act in a certain way", he observed. "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. Jesus' concern for the care of the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless
and prisoners sought to express the core of the Father's mercy. This becomes a
moral imperative for the whole of society that wishes to maintain the necessary
conditions for a better common life. It is within a society's capacity to
include the poor, infirm and imprisoned, that we see its ability to heal their
wounds and make them builders of a peaceful coexistence. Social reintegration
begins by making sure that all of our children go to school and that their
families obtain dignified work by creating public spaces for leisure and
recreation, and by fostering civic participation, health services and access to
basic services, to name just a few possible measures. The whole rehabilitation
process starts here".
"Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy with you means learning not to be prisoners
of the past, of yesterday. It means learning to open the door to the future, to
tomorrow; it means believing that things can change. Celebrating the Jubilee of
Mercy with you means inviting you to lift up your heads and to work in order to
gain this space of longed-for freedom. Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy with
you
means repeating this phrase that we heard a little while ago, so well expressed
and with such force: 'When they gave me my sentence ,someone said to me: do not
ask the reason why you are here, but the purpose. And this 'purpose' keeps us
going ahead; it enables us to overcome the barrier of the social deception that
would have us believe that security and order are obtained only through
imprisonment".
"We know that we cannot turn back, we know that what is done, is done. This is
the way I wanted to celebrate with you the Jubilee of Mercy, because it does
not
exclude the possibility of writing a new story and moving forward. You suffer
the pain of a failure, you feel the remorse of your actions and in many cases,
with great limitations, you seek to remake your lives in the midst of solitude.
You have known the power of sorrow and sin, and have not forgotten that within
your reach is the power of the resurrection, the power of divine mercy which
makes all things new. Now, this mercy can reach you in the hardest and most
difficult of places, but such occasions can also perhaps bring truly positive
results. From inside this prison, 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".
"As I say these things, I recall Jesus' words: 'Let any one of you who is
without sin be the first to throw a stone'. I should leave now ... in saying
these
things to you, I do not do so as if I were in the pulpit, wagging my finger; I
do so on the basis of the experience of my own wounds, errors and sins that the
Lord has wished to forgive and re-educate. I do so on the basis of the
knowledge
that, without His grace and my vigilance, I could easily repeat them. Brothers,
I always ask myself, as I enter a prison, 'Why them and not me?'. And it is a
mystery of divine mercy. But we all celebrating this divine mercy today,
looking
ahead with hope".
Finally, the Pope addressed all the staff and those who undertake any type of
work that brings them into contact with inmates, urging them to remember their
potential to be "signs of the heart of the Father", and adding, "We need one
another; as our sister said to us, recalling the Letter to the Hebrews: let us
feel we are imprisoned alongside them".
Before giving his blessing, he invited those present to pray a moment in
silence: "Each one knows what he wants to say to the Lord; each person knows
--- MPost/386 v1.21
* Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)
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