ROME – Pope Francis addressed a group of mostly South American immigrants Thursday, calling them the “suffering body of Christ.”
pope Said The 3,000 migrants who gathered in Lajas Blancas, Panama on their way to the United States had hoped that he would be with them personally, but instead represented It was conducted by a group of bishops and a group of Catholic pastors from Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia.
The migrants cross the Darien Valley and arrive at Lajas Blancas. The Darien Valley is one of the world’s largest tropical forests, covering more than 1.4 million acres of dense tropical forest along the Panama-Colombia border. dangerous Immigration routes in the Americas.
According to the United Nations, there are more than 500,000 migrants. crossed The 2023 Darien Gap is the highest annual value ever recorded.
File/migrants from Haiti cross one of the many rivers on their way to the United States on their trek through the infamous Darien Gorge near Acandi, Colombia, on October 7, 2021. (John Moore/Getty Images)
The migrants crossing the divide are of about 100 different nationalities from different continents, mostly from Venezuela, Ecuador and Haiti, but also from China and other countries, said Rainel Serrano, head of the Panama Border Agency. It is said that he is coming. Significant numbers of Colombians and Nicaraguans also cross the border.
“I am also the son of immigrants who left in search of a better future,” Pope Francis wrote on Thursday. “Sometimes I didn’t have anything until I was hungry. I’m empty-handed, but I’m full of hope.”
“They are the faces of Mother Church marching with her sons and daughters, discovering in her the face of Christ and lovingly, like Veronica, giving salvation and hope to the Holy Cross.” [Way of the Cross] “It’s the impact of immigration,” he declared.
He said that our immigrant brothers and sisters “represent the suffering body of Christ when they are forced from their lands, when they face the dangers and tribulations of a rugged road, and when they see no other way out.” Stated.
The Pope also called on immigrants to “never forget their human dignity” and “never be afraid to look others in the eye.” “You are not trash, you are members of the human family and the family of God’s children.”
“And thank you for being there,” he said.
