Members of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in this southern Mexican city rose early Oct. 24 to feed but a fraction of the Central American migrants traveling in a caravan, which is trying to traverse Mexico and reach the United States border.

A Scalabrini migrant shelter in Guatemala City has served 1,700 Hondurans heading north as part of a caravan seeking to reach the U.S. border.

Salvadorans widely celebrated St. Romero as the Central American country's first saint. St. Romero was assassinated while celebrating Mass in March 1980 and remains a reviled figure for some on the political right.

On Oct. 14 at the Vatican -- very early morning in El Salvador -- Salvadorans gathered in the square outside the cathedral to watch the ceremony on big screens; others watched in their parishes.

The Mexican bishops conference extended congratulations to presidential election winner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who won a landslide victory on an agenda of change and promises to combat corruption and poverty.

Mexico suffered its most murderous year in memory in 2017, recording more than 29,000 homicides, as the country's crackdown on drug cartels and organized crime showed few signs of success.

"I want to make a call to those who have come to this city to kill, I want to make a call to those that are sharpshooters ... I want to make a call to (President) Daniel Ortega and (Vice President and first lady) Rosario Murillo, not one more death in Masaya," Auxiliary Bishop Silvio Baez Ortega told locals outside St. Sebastian Parish.

Violence in Nicaragua has claimed about 100 lives since April 18.

"Those that are in the caravan, 75 percent of them won't be accepted," he added. "That's been the number over the years."

The April 7 letter, addressed to people in Mexico and the United States and the presidents of both countries, echoed sentiments of U.S. border bishops by saying the frontier between the two countries "is not a war zone".