“Only a Church able to shelter the faces of
men and women who knock on her doors will be able to speak to them of God….
We do not need ‘princes’, but rather a community of the Lord’s witnesses.” Pope
Francis addressed a long and passionate speech to the bishops of Mexico on
Saturday morning, 13 February, in the Cathedral of the Assumption in Mexico
City. It was an address in which the Pontiff touched on the serious challenges
which the country is facing, including migration and crime. Expressing his
trust in the ability of the country and of the Church to walk on the path of
peace and justice, the Pope said that he “is sure that Mexico and its Church”,
he said, “will make it in time to that rendezvous with themselves, with history
and with God”. The Pope’s address to the bishops…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Sunday made his way through one of Mexico City’s most lawless neighborhoods, Ecatepec, to celebrate Mass for a massive crowd of faithful. Fr. Federico Lombardi, Director of the Holy See Press Office, spoke to Veronica Scarisbrick about the exuberant welcome received by the Pope from the Mexican people. Listen to their full conversation:
Pope Francis, Fr. Lombardi said, has said his main sentiment regarding his welcome in Mexico is gratitude. “He feels that these people who come in the street to show him love, joy for his coming, desire of blessing is something that expresses a love that is without interest, without looking for something material. In this sense, his experience of meeting the people is meeting them in a spiritual way, a joyful way.” Messenger of mercy and peace He said the key to the Holy Father’s Apostolic Journey to Mexico is his coming as a messenger of mercy and peace . The people “understand the presence of someone that is giving to them mercy, love and hope to progress toward peace, if they have a Christian attitude, responsibility, and solidarity for others, as the Pope says the Gospel requires.” The Pope has drawn massive crowds to his events, and Fr. Lombardi said, “This movement of this many, many hundreds of thousands of people on the street … I think is giving off its fruits in the sense which the Pope hopes: a growth in hope, in mercy, and solidarity.” He said Pope Francis’ prayer before the Virgin of Guadalupe on Saturday is “always the atmosphere in which the Pope encounters the people of Mexico, and he asked the Mother of God to bless this people and to help this people to have hope [for] a better future. The problems are very hard, but the Pope encourages them not to be desperate, to try to build a world in which mutual understanding, solidarity, can really confront the situation.” Sunday Mass in Ecatepec Speaking about the Holy Father’s Mass in Ecatepec on Sunday, Fr. Lombardi said, “The people were listening to the Pope very willingly, they had waited for the Pope in a very cool night and morning, but they were very happy to meet the Pope. I think this Mass has been the most massive Mass that we have experienced. In this anonymous and terrific town, the message of love, of solidarity, of being together in love and hope is something very fundamental. We can see how the message of the gospel is needed to be human in this world.” Pope Francis at the end of the Mass told the people to not dialogue with the devil . Fr. Lombardi said his was a very traditional message, which “sometimes seems to be too simple, but in reality it [hits at] the profound roots of the problem. Without a conversion in the heart of everyone and also in society, we will not confront the problem of violence, the problem of disparity, and the unjust distribution of wealth. The origins of the problem are exactly in the temptations of Christ.” (from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On Monday Pope Francis flies south west to Chiapas landing in this most southern Mexican state’s capital city, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, before making his way to San Cristóbal de las Casas. He’ll be returning there in the evening to meet with families before returning to Mexico City.
Listen to Veronica Scarisbrick’s report:
Cristobal de las Casas is a tourist haunt which lies along the border with Guatemala. A border traditionally poorly guarded and a place of entry into Mexico for migrants from Central America.
But the reason tourists come here is to visit some of the most striking archaeological sites in Mexico, ‘Mayan’ ruins in misty jungles.
And it’s that word ‘Mayan’ that brings the Pope here. Chiapas is home to one of the largest indigenous populations in the country with twelve federally recognized ethnicities. Among them ‘Chamulans’, a subset of the ‘Tzotzil Mayas’ who make up a third of Chiapa’s nearly one million indigenous people.
Much of the state’s history is centered on the subjugation of these peoples with occasional rebellions. The last of these rebellions was the 1994 Zapatista uprising, which succeeded in obtaining new rights for indigenous people.
And Pope Francis is coming to celebrate Holy Mass in a stadium at San Cristobal de las Casas. The celebration will include three indigenous languages, ‘tseltal’, ‘ch’ol’ and ‘tsotil’.
It’s here that from 1959 to 1999 Bishop Samuel Ruiz learnt these Mayan languages in an effort to communicate with the indigenous people and from here he rode his mule into the hills travelling to remote areas where they lived in dire poverty. It is here that he gave value to local traditions, education, social justice and care of ‘Mother Earth’.
It was also here that ‘the Bishop of the Poor’ or ‘Tata’, father as they called him in the Mayan languages is now buried at the heart of the Cathedral Pope Francis will visit after Holy Mass.
(from Vatican Radio)…