Pope Francis led the Way of the Cross of the World Youth Days in Panama

Pope Francis rejected on Friday that migrants are considered responsible for "social evil", amid the outbreaks of xenophobia that Central Americans and Americans face in their exodus.

"We want to be the Church (...) that does not stigmatize and generalize in the most absurd and irresponsible condemnation of identifying all emigrants as carriers of social ills," said the pontiff at during his visit to Panama.

The speech on racism was offered to 400,000 people during the closure of Via Crucis, which is part of the second day of World Youth Day (WYD) in Panama., with a message focused on violence against women and abortion.

Thousands of young people were waiting for the Sovereign Pontiff in the so-called coastal strip - Campo Santa María la Antigua - for the beginning of Via Crucis.

There the representation of the 14 stations to reflect on Latin American issues concerning the Catholic Church, such as migration, terrorism, abortion, religious vocations, violence and poverty. The 14 were represented by youth delegations from different Latin American countries.

The first station, for example, was Honduras, a country where more than 60% of its population lives in poverty. And this is precisely one of the problems raised by young Hondurans in their reflection with the pope.

The fourth station dealt with the situation of indigenous peoples and was represented by Guatemala, a country where nearly 5 million of the 11 million people living there belong to an indigenous ethnic group.

The sixth season was in Venezuela and one of the issues was migrationwhich was precisely a central problem in the region because of the political and social crisis in the country, which forced thousands of people to settle in different parts of the world.

World Youth Day (WYD) has three central events: the via crucis, vigil and mbad mailing, which are chaired by Francisco.

The earliest Friday, About 30 activists from the LGBT community demonstrated in the streets to demand respect and end homophobia in the country. The group, which represents bads, gays, bibaduals and transbaduals, has gathered with placards next to a Catholic church where WYD's large-scale events take place.

"Homophobia is a sin", was read on a banner that showed a young man. Another woman raised a sign with the inscription "State be divided of the Church."