{"id":90157,"date":"2015-10-07T10:47:29","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T16:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=90157"},"modified":"2015-10-07T15:09:40","modified_gmt":"2015-10-07T21:09:40","slug":"possible-pope-visit-to-juarez-excites-many-new-mexicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/10\/possible-pope-visit-to-juarez-excites-many-new-mexicans\/","title":{"rendered":"Possible Pope Francis visit to Ju\u00e1rez excites many New Mexicans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pope<\/a>

Jeffrey Bruno \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/p>

Pope Francis, shown here at the canonizations of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II in 2014.<\/p><\/div>\n

Many New Mexicans greeted\u00a0news that Pope Francis might visit Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, Mexico next year with excitement.<\/p>\n

“Super cool!” Daniel R. Sambrano of Do\u00f1a Ana wrote in a discussion NMPolitics.net facilitated on Facebook<\/a>. “This might be the only reason I’ll finally cross the border once again. First time in at least 10 years.”<\/p>\n

“I’m not Catholic, nor Christian, but I’d love to go see him!” wrote<\/a> Rose Vargas of Las Cruces.<\/p>\n

There’s no certainty the pope will visit Ju\u00e1rez, which is located about 50 miles south of Las Cruces just across the U.S.\/Mexico border. The Vatican confirmed Tuesday that the pope will make his first trip to Mexico in 2016<\/a>, probably in the first half of the year.<\/p>\n

Other than a visit to Mexico City, dates and stops\u00a0haven’t been determined, the Vatican said.<\/p>\n

A Mexican radio reporter cited a source as confirming that the pope will visit Ju\u00e1rez. Other\u00a0media, including El Diario<\/a>, which publishes editions in Chihuahua and Ju\u00e1rez in Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, reported on the possible Ju\u00e1rez visit.<\/p>\n

Such a visit would be\u00a0“great news for our region,” Ernesto Garcia of Las Cruces wrote on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Paso Del Norte region — Ju\u00e1rez, El Paso, and Southern New Mexico — is on the pope’s radar. He considered beginning last month’s visit to the United States<\/a> by\u00a0crossing the border<\/a> from Ju\u00e1rez to El Paso, but ultimately decided against it. The Catholic bishops in Ju\u00e1rez, El Paso and Las Cruces have all sent formal invitations asking the pope to visit the region.<\/p>\n

Americans once regularly crossed the border into Ju\u00e1rez for travel, shopping, and other activities. Violence in recent years has dramatically slowed such activity. Today Ju\u00e1rez is safer<\/a> than it\u00a0has been in recent years, but\u00a0the U.S. State Department still advises caution<\/a> when traveling\u00a0there.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully the holy father can bring peace and stability to that struggling city,” Sambrano wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n

A Ju\u00e1rez\u00a0visit by the pope — in an American presidential election year — would likely bring attention in the United States to issues including immigration and the war on drugs.<\/p>\n

Ju\u00e1rez Catholic Diocese spokesman\u00a0Hesiquio Trevizo was quoted by\u00a0El Diario<\/a> as saying such a trip by the pope “will be very important — because from here, a place that still has violence and criminality, he will speak to the whole world.”<\/p>\n

“Our city has very serious problems,” Trevizo was quoted as saying. “Sadly the femicides continue, human life is easily disposed, there is still violence, the world of the migrant is terrible. The press has published that the border is home to human trafficking, child abuse and other things.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Ju\u00e1rez visit by the pope — in an American presidential election year — would likely bring attention in the United States to issues including immigration and the war on drugs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[236,195,1285,177],"class_list":["post-90157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-mexico","tag-mexicos-drug-war","tag-paso-del-norte","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}