Texas stadium fills for pope’s last Mexico Mass

On the eve of Francis’ trip, Trump criticized the pope’s border stop.

Diaz, who along with about 30 family members secured tickets for Wednesday’s Mass, has followed news of Francis’ tour and welcomed his calls for Mexicans not to tolerate corruption and violence.

His visit closes with a large outdoor Mass, to be simulcast live on giant screens on the other side of the Rio Grande at the Sun Bowl, where US officials planned for at least 30,000 people.

“This is our own pope-a-palooza”, she said, referring to the popular music festival.

After telling youth in Mexico’s crime-ridden city of Morelia yesterday not to give in to the lies of drug dealers or be used by people with selfish interests, he told the prisoners that even though they have perhaps chosen this path, there is still hope that they, and society, can change.

“God will hold the slave drivers of our days accountable”, he said.

After the prison stop, Francis set a meeting with workers and advocacy groups at which he was expected to address poverty and income inequality. He concludes it with a visit to the Texas border for a prayer for victims of human trafficking.

Pope Francis warned that each time a person’s integrity is violated, it begins a process of declination for society as a whole.

The Juarez prison was also the scene of deadly riots a few years ago, with dozens of prisoners killed in recent years, but it has been held up as an example of efforts to improve Mexico’s notoriously overcrowded prisons.

Francis told the 700 or so inmates gathered in the prison chapel that they can not undo the past. But he said they have the possibility of “writing a new story and moving forward”.

He said: “You have known the power of sorrow and sin and have not forgotten that within your reach is the power of the resurrection, the power of divine mercy which makes all things new”.

Pope Francis, top second from right, visits inmates at the CeReSo…

Meanwhile, a steady stream of pedestrians walked across the Bridge of the Americas into Juarez.

Volunteers from the Catholic diocese were handing out free water bottles to those crossing the bridge.

One of the pedestrians, Luis Trillo, did so despite pain from arthritis in his legs.

“Jesus would never ask us to be hit men”, the pope said. As the faithful looked on from both sides of the border, Francis blessed the cross and three smaller ones, which the Vatican said were to be sent to the diocese of Ciudad Juarez, Las Cruces and El Paso.

Venders are hawking papal memorabilia – from yellow and white flags to baseball caps and t-shirts with the pontiff’s likeness.

Alitalia says no one was hurt and the aircraft landed safely. He added that while getting along can be hard in an increasingly competitive world, it would be worse if society allows this competition to destroy people.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration reported almost 4,000 laser strikes in 2013.

Pope Francis arrives in the popemobile to Viktor Manuel Reyna stadium, in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, Monday, Feb. 15, 2016. “I think Mexico got him to do it because they want to keep the border just the way it is”.

The Mexican Navy’s mariachi band saw him away with a specially composed number: “Pope Francis, this isn’t farewell, it’s only see you later”.

The pontiff was greeting children in a stadium in Mexico, where he was wrapping up a trip. Ted Cruz have vowed to expel all the estimated 11 million immigrants in the US illegally and build a wall along the border from Texas to California. He’s beaming and waving to thick crowds along the streets as he heads to the airport in his popemobile to catch a flight to the northern border metropolis of Juarez.

The border Mass marked the climactic end of Francis’ five-day swing through some of Mexico’s poorest and most marginal states, where drug-fueled violence has soared thanks to the complicity of police and other public institutions.