Pope Francis travels to Mexico
Francis to focus on Mexico’s hardships, immigrants’ plight
this week and will confront that nation’s issues of violence and corruption.
MEXICO CITY — Pope Francis travels to Mexico on Thursday, saying he wants to “live the faith” of the overwhelmingly Catholic country but will not shy away from confronting issues of violence and corruption that could make his governmental hosts quite uncomfortable.
History’s first pontiff from the Americas will also stand on Mexico’s border with the U.S. and make an impassioned plea for the plight of immigrants. His entire pilgrimage from southern to northern Mexico is meant to represent the perilous route that migrants take to reach the U.S.
This is the Argentine pope’s fourth trip to Latin America, home to the largest Roman Catholic communities in the world but ones that have faced challenges from the spread of Protestantism, loss of faith and slowed population growth because of migration, murder and lower birth rates.
The Mexico that Francis will visit, following the wellworn path of his two predecessors, is enduring a decade-old wave of brutal criminal and narco warfare, a spate of egregious human rights abuses, an economic slump and official corruption that has helped take President Enrique Pena Nieto’s approval rating to historic lows.
“You are living your little piece of war,” Francis said last week in a videotaped message to Mexicans conveyed via the semiofficial Notimex news agency.
“The Mexico of violence, the Mexico of corruption, the Mexico of drug trafficking, the Mexico of cartels is not the Mexico that our mother (the Virgin Mary) wants,” he added. “I, of course, will not cover any of that up.
“To the contrary,” he added, “I want to exhort you to fight every day against corruption, against trafficking, against war, disunity, organized crime.”
Even before the pope sets foot on Mexican soil Friday, government officials were incensed by his comments.
“Undoubtedly, he has certain information,” Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said. “The best information will be what he can see here.”
Mexico was once a highly anti-clerical country; after the 1910 revolution, the government confiscated church property and prohibited priests from wearing their collars and robes in public.
That trend has been reversed. Diplomatic ties with the Holy See were established in 1994, and many clerics today tend to be supportive of the government. Despite losses and a strong secular strain, Mexico remains more than 80 percent Catholic.
The stops that Francis has on his itinerary speak volumes about his intended message.
He will come to Mexico City, a sprawling megalopolis and the site of the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico and all the Americas.
Francis will also visit Ecatepec, a poor, dangerous city just outside Mexico City where nearly 2 million people reside.
He will celebrate Mass in Morelia, capital of Michoacan state, one of the top sources of migrants who live in the U.S.
Francis will tread into the least traditionally Catholic state, Chiapas, on Mexico’s border with Guatemala and home to numerous semiautonomous indigenous communities.
Protestant Pentecostalism has made significant inroads in Chiapas, and so has liberation theology, the pro-left version of Christianity out of favor at the Vatican — until the ascension in 2013 of Francis, who is a vocal proponent of the doctrine’s emphasis on the poor.
Chiapas is Mexico’s most impoverished and neglected state. In the picturesque, mountainous city of San Cristobal de las Casas, Francis will lead prayers using indigenous languages, such as Tzotzil, Tselsal and Ch’ol, and will feature Mayan dance and symbols, Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel said. The pontiff will issue rules to formally allow the use of indigenous languages in church services, something that his predecessor, Benedict XVI, had discouraged.
Francis also chose Chiapas because it is the most common entry point of Central American migrants fleeing bloodshed and poverty and hoping to reach the U.S.
His final stop will be in the notorious northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, thus symbolically tracing the route of migrants.
Ciudad Juarez once had the highest murder rate of the country and, possibly, all of Latin America. But a combination of developments, including the apparent victory of one drug gang over its rivals, as well as social programs launched by private business, has significantly reduced the killing.
In what will be one of the most emotional moments of his pilgrimage, the pope will celebrate a cross-border Mass on Feb. 17, with perhaps 200,000 on the Juarez side and others on the U.S. side. About 50,000 will watch a simulcast from El Paso’s Sun Bowl stadium. The stage from which he will pray will only be about 240 feet from the border fence, and he plans to ride along the barrier in his popemobile.
“The Mass will be deliberately visible from both sides,” Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters in Rome.
The event follows a tradi- tion started by American bishops of celebrating Mass at the border fence as a show of unity and support for migrants.
With nonstop television coverage of the pope in Mexico, the Pena Nieto administration and his Institutional Revolutionary Party may hope to score political points. Regional elections are taking place this year in 13 states, where the party will want to gain or expand its power.
Suspicion among many Mexicans that that is the government’s ulterior motive has led to a lot of anger about what will undoubtedly be an elaborate and expensive spectacle. A Twitter campaign has grown in recent days with #yonoquieroquevengaelpapa (#Idon’twantthepopetocome).
But, if favorable publicity informs the government’s calculation, it may not work, especially if Francis holds true to his tendencies to chide the powerful.
“The pope does not hesitate to speak frankly and directly to the communities he visits,” said the Rev. Kevin O’Brien, vice president for mission and ministry at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
But, in his Notimex remarks, the pope also cautioned against exaggerated expectations: “I am not going to Mexico as one of the Three Wise Men, loaded with (gifts), messages, ideas, solutions to problems.
“I am going to Mexico as a pilgrim, to seek the wealth of faith that you all have.”