Pope Francis Begins Trip to Mexico; Christchurch Hit With Earthquake.
ANDERSON: People in New Zealand are feeling unnerved after a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck near Christchurch. Now casualties have been reported, but came almost exact five years after the Christchurch quake that killed at least 185 people. CNN affiliate TVNZ has this report for you on that story.</s>KIM SAVAGE, TVNZ CORRESPONDENT: Nearly five years on, but painfully familiar, cliff faces falling into the sea, panicked shoppers fleeing the malls, Christchurch, a city reborn, just starting to relax into new normal its new normal again shaken to the core. (inaudible) Christchurch. People seem to be (inaudible).</s>SAVAGE: Evacuations followed. The slow reaction at some centers causing frustration with those on the front line.</s>STEVE TUREK, FIRE REGION MANAGER: We have made it clear to those managers in those shopping mallsabout their responsibilities.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought they had to close it and get everybody out after 5.5 but they don't apparently.</s>SAVAGE: The thought of returning to work too much for some. Shock everywhere but it appears no one was seriously hurt. Emergency services were busy in the minutes following the quake.</s>KENNY MITCHELL, ST. JOHN TERRITORY MANAGER: Involving a lot of what we call, you know, fainting type events -- chest pain, shortness of breath and falls.</s>SAVAGE: It was all hands on deck in the east of the city with extra emergency services staff brought in form the wider region.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People who had had chipped (inaudible) et cetera. Nothing major of serious consequence but, of course, you know, the memories of the past obviously need to be taken care of as well as physical damage.</s>SAVAGE: North and east of the city, liquifaction back again, although not on a large scale.</s>JOHN MACKLE, CIVIL DEFENSE CONDUCTOR: Well, that was quite a big shake. We are really pleased with the resilience that the network has shown in this event.</s>SAVAGE: Measuring magnitude 5.7, but just 15 kilometers east of the city, it the biggest shake for Centabrians (ph) in some time.</s>ANNA KAISER, SEISMOLOGIST: I believe there was 5.2 in 2013, and then prior to that of course you had the December 2011 quakes, which were 5.9. So that was quite a long time ago for the people of Christchurch.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's uncanny timing, isn't it?</s>JOHN PRICE, POLIC COMMANDER: Yeah, timing is uncanny but these things are a matter of nature. And we have got to be always prepared.</s>SAVAGE: The city's mayor with some words of reassurance for its residents.</s>LIANNE DALCIAL, CHRISTCHURCH MAYOR: What we have to take from this is that our city is stronger than it was five years ago. There's better able to respond to things.</s>SAVAGE: And all of this just a week out from the five-year anniversary of the first big February quake.</s>ANDERSON: Kim Savage reporting there for CNN affiliate TVNZ. Well, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump doesn't mince his words, even when it comes to the pope. Now he is speaking out about the palal visit to Mexico, calling the pope's message too political. And CNN's Miguel Marquez learned that this criticism may work to Trump's advantage with some voters.</s>MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Donald Trump is at it again, staking out a position that on the face of it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense but may acxtually work in his favor. This time it is Trump versus the pope. Pope Francis, donning a sombrero, Mexico-bound, and stirring controversy in the U.S. presidential race.</s>TRUMP: The pope is a very political person. I think he doesn't understand the problems our country has. We're going to run the table.</s>MARQUEZ: That's the brash billionaire turned presidential hopeful from a Fox business interview taking on the pope, or as Catholics believe, god's representative on Earth.</s>TRUMP: I don't think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico.</s>MARQUEZ: The pope, who has staked out traditionally liberal views on everything from climate change to capitalism to the poor, is headed to the northern city of Juarez, where he will hold a prayer service with immigrants in the shadow of the fence separating Mexico and the U.S. If elected, Trump promises to transform the fence into a wall.</s>TRUMP: I think Mexico got him to do it because Mexico wants to keep the border just the way it is because they are making a fortune and we are losing.</s>MARQUEZ: It is not the first time the pot stirring candidate has called the pope out.</s>TRUMP: I have great respect for the pope. I like the pope. I actually like him, he is becoming very political, there's no question about it, but I like him.</s>MARQUEZ: And oh what a difference a political campaign makes following Francis's election Trump tweeted the new pope is a humble man very much like me which probably explains why I like him so much. So, what gives with all the papal poopooing now?</s>CHIP FELKEL, THE FELKEL GROUP: It is pandering, no question about that, in terms of positioning himself with that evangelical base.</s>MARQUEZ: Chip Felkel, a South Carolina Republican consultant and longtime adviser to GOP candidates says Trump may be crazy like a fox. Donald Trump taking on the pope gets him attention and gets him on the radar in South Carolina?</s>FELKEL: It's a way to try to have connection with that evangelical vote that Cruz is expected to do well in.</s>MARQUEZ: Trump has consistently bested Xruz by double digits in South Carolian polls, but it seems after tasting defeat in Iowa and victory in New Hampshire he prefers to win leaving no political stone unturned. Well, Felkel and other say there are very few Catholics in South Carolina, but this may end up backfiring on Trump in later states where he will face far more Catholic voters. They say for now, this is a high stakes gamble that the entertainer and businessman is making hoping that it garners him more attention and votes in the South Carolina primary. Miguel Marquez, CNN, New York.</s>ANDERSON: Well, Pope Francis is continuing his travels in Mexico with a mass scheduled to start under an hour from now just north of Mexico City. Let's get your some live pictures, if we can. The pope traveling to that mass as we speak. It will take place in a notoriously dangerous area. Pope Francis has urged Mexico's civic and religious leaders to protect citizens from corruption and crime. And these pictures coming to us just a little earlier on, as I can get you live pictures I will. CNN religious commentator Father Becky, Father Edward Beck, joining me now live from New York. Let's just talk about this controversy that the pope is courting, not least from Donald Trump, for example. But he has certainly been getting involved in politics that being the pontiff. There are many people in the States who won't agree with him on that. There may be some people in Mexico who don't agree. He has been outspoken. Is he right?</s>FATHER EDWARD BECK, CNN RELIGIOUS COMMENTATOR: Well, Becky, for this pope, he has to enter these issues because he thinks that they are issues of the gospel. It is not political for him. Immigration for him is a gospel issue. Remember, his first trip outside of Rome once he was elected was to the island of Lampadusa. The migrants coming from Africa. He wanted to make a statement that immigration, migrants, those who suffer political hardship, violence in their countries, have a right to seek a safe haven. For him, it's a gospel issue, not a political one. So, here in Mexico -- and again this immigration issue is very hot right now in the United States. He is going to have that mass at Ciudad Juarez on Wednesday and it is going to be so interesting, Becky, because there are going to be people on both sides of the fence attending this mass.</s>ANDERSON: This mass in a notoriously tough part of the city, a part of the city where many women, for example, have disappeared recently. Before his arrival in Mexico, the pope said he would speak out about corruption and crime afflicting parts of the country. He also said that the Catholic church needs to do more, it needs to walk the walk rather than talking the talk as it were. What does he mean by that? What can the church and should the church be doing?</s>BECK: Well, we have to remember, Becky, that in Mexico the church was suppressed for a very long time. After the 1910 revolution, the church could not own property, priests could not wear priestly vestments or garb in public. So, there's a lot of suppression of the church. That began to change after 1992. So the pope says now that you can do more as a church -- he kind of dressed down the bishops yesterday. I don't know if you saw that in the cathedral. But he said to them, look, you cannot be coddling with the rich and the powerful, you must be the shepherds of the sheep. And so once again he is challenging his own pastors, his own bishops to be people for the poor. And he really believes that that is where the priests and the bishops need to be.</s>ANDERSON: Let's talk about this trip because he has got a number of stops coming up, not least places that the pope has never been. Just how significant are these stops that he is making?</s>BECK: Well, what is most significant, first of all, is we have had popes go to Mexico before. Remember, John Paul II went there five times. Benedict has been to Mexico. No pope has visited where this pope is going. So, after the mass today at Ecatepec, and you said it is one of the most violent parts of Mexico, tomorrow he goes to Chiapas, which 75 percent indingenous people in Chiapas. He's going to celebrate a mass in all of those indigenous languages, really giving outreach to those who are on the fringe once again. Then he goes to where the drug cartels are on Tuesday to Morelia in Michoacan. And he is going to be speaking to his priests, his religious and seminarians, once again those he thinks that should be in the field as part of the field hospital tending to the poor. He is going to speak to them in a place where drug cartels rule, where there is a corrupt state government. So, you see, he keeps pushing himself out to the fringe, ending then on Wednesday at the mass at Ciudad Juarez right on the border and the immigration issue will be front and center then.</s>ANDERSON: So you are pointing out that he can, or he has an opportunity, to hit one of these key button interests, as it were, immigration, the poor, drugs, human trafficking. He will do the environment and youth. We know he will do that. I just wonder what sort of impact he will make in the end in a country where things are -- it's a wonderful country, by the way, but a place that is very, very, very tough and so many of these issues are such a blight on communities.</s>BECK: Well, I think, Becky, just shining a light on it begins to make a difference. You have to realize -- and of course you do -- these people feel forgotten. So for a pope to come where no one else has gone in the religious hierarchy, I think it says to them you matter. So, I think starting with human dignity of people, it makes a great difference. And then to say that this is where the church should be. A lot of perception of the people is that the church has really aligned itself with the government and with the rich. Remember, we have heard reports of church using drug cartel money to fund building projects and the people are saying, look, how can the church be using drug money for building projects? This pope is saying that is not acceptable. That is not who we are. So I think it makes a difference symbolically, but I also think that makes a difference because he is going and he's saying and challenging people that the people want challenged.</s>ANDRESON: Sure. Father Becky, it's always a pleasure having you on as we close our conversation, pictures just coming to us of the pope in the helicopter on the way -- or certainly the pope's helicopter on the way to that mass which I believe is going to start in about 45 minutes. And do stay with CNN. We will bring you some live coverage of that as and when he begins. Remarkable pictures there as the helicopter delivers the pope to this mass. Live from Abu Dhabi, this is Connect the World. Coming up, an attack that shook a nation. I'm going to speak to young survivors of the Pakistani -- or recent Pakistani school massacre about how they are rebuilding their lives.