Reflection of the Virgin. The mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe is located next to a gas station in the Lower Valley of El Paso. (Cynthia Carol Almodovar/Borderzine.com)

El Paso follows national trend of decrease in religious affiliation

By |

Although Catholicism is still the most prominent faith in the El Paso region, it is following a national trend of declining numbers of adherents, particularly losing its hold on younger people who now tend to prefer personal expressions of faith rather than institutionalized religions. According to the website thearda.com in 2000 the number of Catholics in the border city was 349,866 or 51.5 percent of the El Paso County Population. Over the last 10 years, that number has steadily decreased and now stands at 43.2 percent of the population. In addition, the number of local residents affiliating with any religion has dropped dramatically during that same time, from 27.9 percent of residents identifying as non-religious in 2000, to 42.3 percent of the El Paso population not affiliating with any religion in 2010. The number of those not identifying with a religion is near the amount of Catholics today.

Non-Catholics share views about pope’s border visit

By |

EL PASO — In a region where the majority of the population is Catholic, news of Pope Francis’ visit to Cd. Juarez on Wednesday has brought a lot of excitement since it was announced back in December. But among non-Catholics it is still just Wednesday. Jehovah Witnesses Claudia A. Bernal and her mother, also named Claudia, said they don’t have plans to follow any of the pope-related events since they don’t share the same beliefs, but they also don’t feel any opposition to the celebration. “We are respectful about the pope’s visit,” said the elder Claudia Bernal.

Juarez prison workers expect pope’s visit to have lasting impact on inmates

By |

When Pope Francis arrives in the borderlands on Wednesday to celebrate afternoon Mass before thousands at a freshly built altar and pavilion called “El Punto” on the old Juarez fairgrounds, the pontiff will also make a stop at the Cereso state prison to visit several hundreds prisoners and their families. The prison, known as the Centro de Readaptación Social para Adultos No. 3, has a reputation as a rough facility for hardened criminals and in the past has experienced several riots and killings. On Wednesday, a group of Cereso prisoners will greet “el Papa” with a special song when he arrives at the prison doors at about 10:30 a.m. It is his first stop along a 25-mile human chain leading from the Juarez airport to the site of the Mass at El Punto. As in his visits to prisons in previous tours of U.S. cities like Philadelphia, Pope Francis is expected to bring a message of love, hope and forgiveness to the Cereso inmates and their families.

Volunteers practice linking to form human wall for pope's visit

Thousands of El Pasoans, Juarenses link up to create human chain along pope’s route

By |

JUAREZ — El Paso resident Rafael Sañedo, 21, drove cautiously down several Juarez city streets on a recent Sunday as he headed toward San Lorenzo Plaza to rehearse his part in the 25-mile-long human chain that will greet Pope Frances when he arrives in Juarez Wednesday to deliver a historic Mass at the old Juarez Fairgrounds, called El Punto. “Juarez has changed a lot throughout the years,” said Sañedo, a pet store employee, who has not crossed an international bridge from his home in El Paso into Ciudad Juarez for the last decade. The last time he visited Juarez was to see his grandmother before she died. “She was the only reason why we even came, so after she passed away there was no reason for me to come back,” he said. Several weeks ago Sañedo had a change of heart when, after attending Mass at Saint Mark Catholic Church in east El Paso, he heard an announcement asking for volunteers to help form a human wall, referred to as lLa Valla.