(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis delivered an address to Mexican civil authorities and the Diplomatic Corps in Mexico on Saturday, the first full day of his Apostolic visit to the country. Below, please find the full text of the Holy Father’s prepared remarks, in their official English translation
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I thank you, Mr President, for your words of welcome. I am happy to set foot on Mexican soil which holds a special place in the heart of the Americas. Today I come as a missionary of mercy and of peace but also as a son who wishes to pay homage to his mother, the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, and place himself under her watchful care.
Endeavouring to be a good son, following in our mother’s footsteps, I wish in turn to pay my respects to this people and to this land which is so rich in culture, history, and diversity. Through you, Mr President, I would like to greet and embrace the Mexican people in its numerous expressions and in the most diverse of situations it experiences. Thank you for welcoming me to your land.
Mexico is a great country. It is blessed with abundant natural resources and with an enormous biodiversity that extends across its vast territory. Its privileged geographical position makes it a reference point for America; and its indigenous, mestizo and criollo cultures endow it with its own identity that facilitates a cultural richness not always easy to find and, particularly, to value. The ancestral wisdom shown by your multiculturalism is, by far, one of your greatest biographical resources. It is an identity that learned gradually how to shape itself amid diversity and that now constitutes, without any doubt, a rich patrimony to be valued, encouraged and protected.
I believe and I dare to say that Mexico’s principal richness today has a young face; yes, this richness is your young people. Just over half of the population is made up of youth. This makes it possible to contemplate and plan for a future, for a tomorrow. This offers hope and future prospects. A people with a youthful population is a people able to renew and transform itself; it is an invitation to look to the future with hope and, in turn, it challenges us in a positive way here and now. This reality inevitably leads us to think about one’s own responsibilities when it comes to constructing the kind of Mexico we want, the Mexico that we want to pass on to coming generations. It also leads us to the realization that a hope-filled future is forged in a present made up of men and women who are upright, honest, and capable of working for the common good, the “common good” which in this twenty-first century is not in such great demand. Experience teaches us that each time we seek the path of privileges or benefits for a few to the detriment of the good of all, sooner or later the life of society becomes a fertile soil for corruption, drug trade, exclusion of different cultures, violence and also human trafficking, kidnapping and death, bringing suffering and slowing down development.
The Mexican people anchors its hope in an identity which has been shaped in the trying and difficult moments of its history. It was forged by the wonderful witness of citizens who understood that, in order to overcome situations born of the obstinacy of individualism, it was necessary to have agreement between the political, social and financial institutions, and of all men and women committed to the common good and the promotion of the dignity of the human person.
An ancestral culture together with encouraging human resources such as yours, should be a stimulus to find new forms of dialogue, negotiation, and bridges that can lead us on the way of committed solidarity. Starting with those who call themselves Christians, it is a commitment to which all of us must give of ourselves, for the construction of a “political life on a truly human basis” ( Gaudium et Spes , 73), and a society in which no one feels a victim of the culture of waste.
Leaders of social, cultural and political life have the particular duty to offer all citizens the opportunity to be worthy contributors of their own future, within their families and in all areas where human social interaction takes place. In this way they help citizens to have real access to the material and spiritual goods which are indispensable: adequate housing, dignified employment, food, true justice, effective security, a healthy and peaceful environment.
This is not just a question of laws which need to be updated and improved – something always necessary – but rather a need for urgent formation of the personal responsibility of each individual, with full respect for others as men and women jointly responsible in promoting the advancement of the nation. It is a task which involves all Mexicans in different spheres, public or private, collective or individual.
I assure you, Mr President, that in this effort, the Government of Mexico can count on the cooperation of the Catholic Church, which has accompanied the life of this nation and which renews its commitment and willingness to serve the great causes of mankind: the building of the civilization of love.
I am ready to travel around this beautiful and wide country as a missionary and as a pilgrim who wishes to renew with all of you the experience of mercy as a new horizon of opportunity which inevitably brings justice and peace. I also entrust myself to the gaze of Mary, the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, so that by her intercession, the merciful Father may grant that these days and the future of this land be an opportunity for encounter, unity and peace. Thank you.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) After arriving in Mexico City on Friday night, Pope Francis made a brief appearance outside the Apostolic Nunciature (Vatican Embassy), where he will be staying while in the Mexican capital.
He told the people they “needed to rest” ahead of the weekend’s festivities, and accepted two white roses from well-wishers.
He also led the crowd in a Hail Mary.
Finally, he left them with these word: “Look at the Virgin and remember these faces: The people who love us, those we love, those we do not like, those who do not like us, and are envious of us.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has a fortnightly telephone appointment with a youth prison in Buenos Aires, where he speaks to the young people incarcerated there.
The head of the Vatican Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, revealed this during a press conference in Mexico City on Friday.
When asked about the prison riot at Topo Chico prison in Monterrey, Mexico, which left 49 people dead, Fr. Lombardi said the event had “troubled the heart” of Pope Francis.
Pope Francis is scheduled to visit a prison near the end of his visit to Mexico in the city of Juarez, which Fr. Lombardi said was still on the schedule, adding Pope Francis has a strong commitment to ministry to prisoners.
“Not only has he visited penitentiaries in Rome, such as the Holy Thursday ceremony in Rebibbia, where he met with detainees” – Father Lombardi said – “Pope Francis also every 15 days carries out a telephone conversation with young prisoners in Buenos Aires.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis is in Mexico on his 12th Apostolic Journey, after meeting with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Havana, Cuba to sign a joint declaration. The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, spoke with Veronica Scarisbrick about the Holy Father’s meeting with the Patriarch and his arrival in Mexico.
Listen to their conversation:
Noting that the Pope and the Patriarch’s encounter was private, Fr. Lombardi said the climate of the discussion was “very friendly, but ‘friendly’ is too little an expression for he says the encounter [began] with the Patriarch saying ‘my brother’ and ended with ‘finally, finally we meet, you are my brother’. This means he was very happy and the Patriarch was also happy.”
He notes this will not be a unique episode but is merely the beginning of a closer relationship. “The Pope has said that they spoke about some concrete initiatives, but he has not explained what. The talk was not theoretically but was concrete.”
“The dynamic element is the personal encounter between the Pope and the Patriarch.”
Mexican welcome
Turning to the arrival of Pope Francis in Mexico , Fr. Lombardi said “here in Mexico City we have these incredible crowds, over a million people. There was a very good preparation for the little arrival ceremony, with people, songs, and dances.
As per his usual, the Holy Father immediately broke protocol upon arrival, going to meet the people. “In this sense I think we have already experienced how the great Mexican people is happy to have the Pope with them and how the Pope desires to meet personally and directly many, many people. This is obviously a place where the Pope speaks his [native] language; this is an advantage. I think it will be a marvellous encounter with this land where the people has always demonstrated an enormous love for the popes.”
Concluding the interview, Fr. Lombardi said, “the vitality of the youth of this people will give a sense of hope, of dynamism, and future, and also the encounter with the Virgin of Guadalupe will give a sense of tenderness and spirituality to these days.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis is in Mexico on his 12th Apostolic Journey. He was welcomed there to an atmosphere of ‘fiesta’ on Friday night. On Saturday his schedule includes an encounter with civil society and the diplomatic corps, the bishops of Mexico, and Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Vatican Radio’s Veronica Scarisbrick is in Mexico with Pope Francis and sent this report on Saturday’s activities.
Listen to the report:
While Pope Francis comes to Mexico to walk with the people he has also begged a chance to pray on his own. You’ll have guessed where. It’s before the image of ‘Our Lady of Guadalupe’ which he says inspires security and tenderness. “She is our mother”, he insists, “who cares, protects and leads a people”.
His request has been granted and on Saturday on the first full day of his Apostolic journey he’ll be shown into a sort of secret room, the ‘camarin’ as they call it, located directly behind the altar of the Basilica of the Shrine which houses this image.
To get to it a sort of mini bank vault has to be unlocked. And for this fleeting occasion the image will be turned towards the Pope rather than towards the congregation gathered there for Holy Mass.
You are probably familiar with this 16th century image of Our Lady framed by a pink almond shaped oval with the rays of the sun all around, wearing a green blue cloak decorated with stars and standing on a crescent moon. The moon being symbolic of Mexico as the word means ‘navel of the moon’. Known as the ‘Morenita’ she appeared as a ‘mestizo’, of mixed race, so symbolic of the unity of Mexican people.
Pope Francis makes requests but also courteously accepts invitations. Naturally from the nation’s President Enrique Pena Nieto at the impressive ‘Palacio Nacional’, seat of the federal executive in Mexico.
Located at the heart of Mexico City the building with its stylish colonial red façade overlooks the elegant “Plaza de la Constituciòn” known as ‘El Zòcalo’. Part of the stone used for it was stolen from the original Palace of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II, also in the early 16th century.
It is there that on Saturday morning Pope Francis delivers his first speech to the Mexican nation in the presence of civil authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps.
The second speech is to the Bishops fittingly in the City’s Metropolitan Cathedral of the ‘Assumption’ with its ‘Dona Maria’ bell which pealed for two hours to welcome the Pope to town on Saturday evening. An ornate colonial building which like all of the rest of this capital city sinks into the spongey soil of what was once an azure lake. One which houses a massive gold altar. I mean really massive. That’s why perhaps the ‘guardia federal’ keeps guard inside the precints of the Cathedral.
In Mexico City, I’m Veronica Scarisbrick.
(from Vatican Radio)…