ECATEPEC, Mexico, Feb 15: Pope Francis Sunday traveled to one of Mexico’s most dangerous and impoverished cities to tell its people that they must not negotiate with “the devil” and that embracing God will protect against the divided, conflictive societies that imperil the world.
He also paid recognition to Christians slain for their faith, “martyrs,” from centuries ago and from today _ an allusion to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Africa, one of Francis’ great preoccupations.
More than a million people are believed to have attended the pope’s Mass, inside the venue and outdoors, in Ecatepec, a suburb of the Mexican capital.
“You cannot dialogue with the devil,” the pope said in his homily, departing, as he often does, from his prepared text. “He will always win.”
Instead, the pope said, people should embrace the spirit of fraternity to avoid forces that “try to separate us, making a divided and fractious family, a divided and fractious society. A society of the few for the few.”
The pope has not minced his words since arriving in Mexico, criticizing both the political elite and that of his church for being seduced by the trappings of wealth and power to the detriment of the poor and marginalized.
The Mass noted the Easter season that has begun for Roman Catholics, after Ash Wednesday this past week and now with Lent, the 40-day period of sacrifice.
As the Mass ended, the pope spoke out on behalf of the poor and children who are often trapped by drug-gang violence Ecatepec and throughout Mexico.
The pope said he prayed for a country where people “do not have to migrate to dream” and where “the opportunism of a few” is not built on the “poverty and desperation of many.”
“A land,” the pope said, “that does not have to cry for men, women, youth and children who end up destroyed at the hand of the traffickers of death.”
