Morelia, the capital city of Michoacan state, is not only the geographical center of Mexico, but is also near the epicenter of organized crime, drug trafficking and extreme violence.
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Tens of thousands more people lined the streets outside the venue for a glimpse of the first Latin American pope, who is traveling to some of the poorest and most violent corners of the country on his February 12-17 trip to Mexico. He rode from the airport to the Vatican ambassador’s residence in the small, white Fiat he has been using sometimes.
This item has been corrected to reflect that the pope told crowd members tugging his sleeve, in Spanish, “Don’t be selfish, don’t be selfish”.
Then before heading inside for the night, Francis added his usual refrain: “Don’t forget to pray for me”.
Francis used his visit to Chiapas to celebrate indigenous cultures. Last year Francis made him a cardinal – an unambiguous message that Francis wants “peripheral” pastors like him to hold the highest rank in the church hierarchy.
Pope Francis warned against moves to diminish the importance of the family, peppering his talk with anecdotes and off-the-cuff remarks that kept a packed soccer stadium cheering, laughing and applauding.
“These, claiming to be modern, increasingly favour a model based on isolation”, the pontiff said. I prefer a family that makes repeated efforts to begin again, to a family and society that is narcissistic and obsessed with luxury and comfort.
Pope Francis met in the sacristy with a group of university rectors and leaders of other Christian communities present in Mexico, before laying a large bunch of flowers on the altar.
Ruiz died in 2011.
The pope “shakes up the conscience of priests in order that we not be mediocre, installed priests who simply seek social promotion, but rather that we truly live our calling to serve the people with great generosity”, Suarez Inda told the Mexican newspaper El Universal last month. Francis recently lifted the ban. Several married indigenous deacons participated in Monday’s Mass.
Francis addressed the Indigenous people with red fragments of the sacred Mayan writings, known as “Popol Vuh”.
The pope previous year apologized for the role of the Church in the conquest of Latin America and left a Vatican decree while in Chiapas authorizing translations of the liturgy into indigenous languages. Official approval for those languages is still pending.
Whether he actually crosses the border or not, Francis’ visit to Mexico is meant to symbolically trace the route of migrants. It draws a comparison to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s widely beloved patron saint, who is said to have appeared before the Indian peasant Juan Diego in 1531. “No, we don’t have children as we like to go on holidays, be tourists, and I want to buy a villa”.
Thanksgiving was the focus of Pope Francis’ Sunday Angelus remarks in Mexico. We can not ignore this any more in front of one of the greatest environmental crises in history.
‘Some have considered your values, culture and traditions to be inferior…You have much to teach us’.
A copy of the letter has been sent to Pope Francis, and was written on behalf of the families of undocumented migrants whose legal status prevents them from attend the papal Mass on the Mexican side.
Crowds chanted “Long live the pope of the poor!” and “Welcome, pope of the struggle!” as he arrived.
Francis is set to visit Morelia’s downtown cathedral on Tuesday and meet with youth groups.
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This is not the first time that this pontiff has visited Chiapas.
