VATICAN CORNER

CONTINUED … On Monday February 15, 2016, Pope Francis visited Mexico’s southern Chiapas state, and denounced the centuries-old exploitation and exclusion of Mexico’s indigenous people. He prayed before the tomb of Bishop Samuel Ruiz who died in 2011 and who was the indigenous people’s controversial protector, and whose ministry had been suspended by the Vatican, but revived under Pope Francis. For 40 years that ministry blended the indigenous culture and customs into Catholic rituals, using such things as readings in native languages, dances of prayer, and participation of married indigenous deacons. Local culture grants more respect to men with children than to childless, celibate men. Under Pope John Paul II, the Vatican asked the Chiapas diocese to halt deacon ordinations. But under Francis, the ordinations were renewed. Pope Francis pronounced to the 500,000 faithful at Mass that “Some have considered your values, culture and traditions to be inferior, others, intoxicated by power, money and market trends, have stolen your lands or contaminated them.” He called for a collective “Forgive me. Today’s world, ravaged as it is by a throwaway culture, needs you!”

On Tuesday, Pope Francis traveled to Michoacán, a Mexican state in which scores of ordinary people and an estimated 40 Catholic priests have been killed by criminal gangs in the past decade. It is a region that has been terrorized by a pseudo-religious drug gang, La Familia Michoacana, and its successor, the Knights Templar, and where rural priests are threatened, kidnapped and killed. It is also the home of the country’s vigilante movement, which rose up to fight the ruthless Knights Templar Cartel. The Mexican army and navy were dispatched to the area to back up the police for the Pope’s visit. Pope Francis’s purpose for going there was to hammer home the indecency of the drug trade and drug-related violence. He spoke to tens of thousands of young Mexicans gathered in a soccer stadium in Morelia. Pope Francis said he understands the temptation of drug cartels on Mexican youth, but believes it’s no match for faith in Jesus Christ. “You’ve asked me for a word of hope, the one I have to tell you, the one at the base of everything, is called Jesus Christ. When everything seems heavy, when it seems the world is against us, embrace your cross, embrace Jesus. It’s true that this path perhaps will not give you the latest car, you won’t have your pockets filled with money, but you’ll have something nobody will ever be able to take away from you, the experience of feeling loved, hugged, accompanied.” Francis stressed that the youth are the real “wealth of Mexico,” and said that’s something they need to remember always, especially when the going gets tough. Pope Francis gave the City of Morelia a cardinal just last year, Alberto Suarez Inda, and he visited him and the and the area priests to thank them for doing God’s work ministering to the faithful in the face of such dangers. To be continued …sources: abcnews.go.com, cruxnow.com, news.va, dailymail.co.uk, fusion.net.