December 23, 2015

Pope Francis Expected To Visit U.S.-Mexico Border In 2016

The trip would be a sign of solidarity with immigrant communities.
11/05/2015 09:23 am ET
David Gibson Religion News Service

NEW YORK (RNS) A Honduran cardinal who is a top adviser to Pope Francis said he expects the pontiff to travel to Mexico’s border with the U.S. when he visits that country in February.

“I think it’s almost sure he will go to the border. I don’t know which cities,” said Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, who heads a special council of nine cardinals that Francis set up in 2013 to advise him on reforming the Vatican.

“Knowing him, he will go … I don’t know yet where,” Rodriguez said in an interview on Tuesday (Nov. 3) before taking part in a Fordham University panel on “Laudato Si’,” the pope’s groundbreaking encyclical on the moral duty to protect the environment.

Francis has made a concern for migrants and refugees a focus of his pontificate and said that he had initially wanted to arrive in the U.S. on his first visit here in September by crossing the border from Mexico as a sign of solidarity with immigrants.

He mentioned Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, as a possible destination.

But Francis said he realized he would have to spend at least a week beforehand in Mexico and he did not have enough time. So instead he visited Cuba for three days before arriving in the U.S. on Sept. 22 for a six-day visit.

“Going through Mexico without going to Our Lady of Guadalupe (the popular shrine to the Virgin Mary in Mexico City) would have been a slap” in the face, Francis told reporters on his flight to the U.S. He also pledged to visit Mexico soon.

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