Pope Francis urges governments to 'open hearts' to migrants

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - In a moment filled with powerful political symbolism, Pope Francis prayed Wednesday at Mexico's dusty northern border for the thousands of migrants who have died trying to reach the United States and appealed for governments to open their hearts, if not their borders, to the "human tragedy that is forced migration."

"No more death! No more exploitation!" he implored.

It was the most poignant moment of Francis' five-day trip to Mexico and one of the most powerful images in recent times: History's first Latin American pope, who has demanded countries welcome people fleeing persecution, war and poverty, praying at the border between Mexico and El Paso, Texas, at a time of soaring anti-immigrant rhetoric in the U.S. presidential campaign.

Francis stopped short of calling for the U.S. to open its borders during a Mass celebrated just yards from the frontier. But in his homily, beamed live into the Sun Bowl stadium on the El Paso side, Francis called for "open hearts" and recognition that those fleeing gangland executions and extortion in their homelands are victims of the worst forms of exploitation.

"We cannot deny the humanitarian crisis which in recent years has meant the migration of thousands of people, whether by train or highway or on foot, crossing hundreds of kilometers through mountains, deserts and inhospitable zones," he said. "They are our brothers and sisters, who are being expelled by poverty and violence, drug trafficking and organized crime."

Francis also praised the work of activists who "are on the front lines, often risking their own lives" to help those caught up in the migration crisis. "By their very lives, they are prophets of mercy," he said.

And then, in a pointed message, Francis added a politically charged greeting to the 30,000 people gathered in the Sun Bowl to watch the simulcast on giant TV screens.

"Thanks to the help of technology, we can pray, sing and celebrate together this merciful love which the Lord gives us, and which no frontier can prevent us from sharing," Francis said in Spanish. "Thank you, brothers and sisters of El Paso, for making us feel like one family and the same Christian community."

Immigrants gathered in El Paso said they were greatly moved by the pontiff's words. Angelica Ortiz, who was among about 500 people who were invited to be on the U.S. side, could barely speak after the pope's prayer, saying in Spanish, "I'm overcome by emotion, a lot of emotion."

Francis, a son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, had wanted to cross the border in solidarity with other migrants when he visited the U.S. last fall. That wasn't possible for logistical reasons, so he did the next best thing on Wednesday by coming within a stone's throw of the fence to pray and lay a bouquet of flowers next to a large crucifix that is to remain at the site as a monument to his visit.

While migrant activists on both sides of the border cheered the gesture, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump criticized it as a politicized and ill-informed move.

"I don't think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico," Trump said in an interview last week with Fox television. "I think Mexico got him to do it because they want to keep the border just the way it is. They're making a fortune, and we're losing."

He and GOP hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz have vowed to expel all the estimated 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally and build a wall along the border.

Asked to comment on the criticism, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope is concerned about the plight of migrants everywhere, not just in the United States.

"The pope always talks about migration problems all around the world, of the duties we have to solve these problems in a humane manner," Lombardi said Tuesday.

The Mass, celebrated in a dusty field along a highway that runs parallel to the Rio Grande, marked the climactic end of Francis' five-day swing through some of Mexico's poorest states, where drug violence has soared thanks to the complicity of police and other public institutions.