Pope Francis calls Virgin Mary a symbol of hope for refugees seeking asylum in the United States

Pope Francis declared Monday that he felt compassion for Latin Americans migrants legitimately “seeking freedom and well-being” in the United States amid a celebration in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe with a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Francis, who is the Vatican’s first Latin American pope made the comment in Spanish as part of larger discussion, in which he expressed sadness over the pain and suffering Latin Americans have endured throughout history.

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe falls each Dec. 12. The date has significance for Catholics as it is the anniversary of one of several apparitions of the Virgin Mary that was witnessed in 1531 by a Mexican named Juan Diego.

Each year, millions of pilgrims travel to Mexico City’s Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe to see the image of the Virgin, which they believe manifested itself on the man’s cloak.

Francis declared Mary a matriarchal figure to Latin Americans everywhere and her spirit was with migrants to give them hope, “to accompany the American people in this difficult path of poverty, exploitation and socioeconomic and cultural colonialism.”

He then made a direct reference to illegal immigration by adding that, “She’s there, in the middle of the caravans that, seeking freedom and well-being, head north.”

While on the one hand the pope referenced Mary as a symbol for migration, he also admonished others not to politicize her image which is often viewed in Latin America as a symbol of the region’s colonization by Europe. He specifically warned against changing Mary’s image.

“I am concerned about ideological-cultural proposals from various places that want to appropriate the encounter of a people with their Mother, who want to desmestizaje and put make-up on the Mother,” he explained.

The comment was in reference to a long running debate in Latin America about Mary’s appearance as some have gradually darkened her skin color to reflect a figure who resembles a blend of both White European and Indigenous Latin Americans.

“Please, let’s not allow the message to be distilled into mundane and ideological patterns,” he said.

Francis was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1936. He served as President of the Argentine Episcopal Conference from 2005-2011 before he was named as the sovereign of the Vatican in 2013. He has been considered one of the more progressive popes welcoming prospective LGBT members to the church and speaking out against laissez faire capitalism.