A bishop from the El Paso diocese on the US-Mexican border presented Pope Leo XIV with letters and videos from migrants which, he said, moved the Pope deeply.
Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas told news sources that Pope Leo became visibly emotional while listening to how migrants experience the same oppression they faced in their countries of origin.
The bishop visited the Vatican with other leaders from the Hope Border Institute, a center for just solutions along the US-Mexico border. The executive of the Institute, Dylan Corbett, posted to social media that Pope Leo told them “the Church cannot stay silent before injustice” and that he stood with them.
This meeting took place just days after the conclusion of the Jubilee of Migrants during which Pope Leo spoke of migrants as “witnesses of hope” and posted to social media that no one should be exploited just because they are foreigners.
The city that the Hope Border Institute is from, El Paso, has witnessed the immigration crisis first-hand. El Paso stands on the edge of the US-Mexican border and over 80% of El Paso citizens are Hispanic with 91% of their migrant population coming from Latin America.
It was due to this exact reason that Pope Francis visited El Paso on his trip to the Americas in 2016. Pope Francis said mass on the border of the two nations, praying for all those who had lost their lives trying to cross the Rio Grande.
He also laid flowers beneath a ten-foot cross in the city of Ciudad Juarez, city just opposite the border to El Paso, in mourning and in hope of a better future.
CRT
