“Some have considered your values, cultures, and traditions inferior”.
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“Long live the pope of the indigenous people!” some shouted from the roofs of their homes as the pope arrived at the field, where a replica of the yellow facade of the city’s cathedral served as background to the large stage.
At an altitude of 7,281 feet, it was once called Ciudad Real and later San Cristobal, to which the name Las Casas was added later in honor of Bartolomé de Las Casas, the first bishop of Ciudad Real and forceful advocate of the rights of the indigenous peoples.
It was a tradition that was embraced by the late bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas, Samuel Ruiz, who ran afoul of both the Mexican church and the Vatican at times for his support for indigenous culture.
The first Latin American pope – himself the son of Italians who migrated to Argentina – urged Mexicans during another mass on Sunday to build a nation where “there will be no need to emigrate in order to dream”.
The pope past year apologised 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.
It was under Pope Francis that the diocese was allowed to start ordaining permanent deacons again in 2014 after ordering a 12-year suspension.
Since beginning his Mexico trip Friday night, Francis has repeatedly taken to task the Mexican church leadership, many of whom are closely linked to Mexico’s political and financial elite and are loath to speak out on behalf of the poor and victims of social injustice.
Francis’ visit comes amid strong challenges to the church in the southern state, including huge inroads by evangelical Protestants who have helped turn Chiapas into the least Catholic and one of the most Protestant and evangelical in Mexico. Welcome, pope of mercy. Welcome to the pope of justice! “Welcome, pope of the struggle”.
Pope Francis traveled deep into Zapatista territory on Monday to praise indigenous Mexicans for showing the rest of the world how to live harmoniously with Mother Nature.
Rather than give up in the face of such corruption, Francis urged the clerics to look to the model of Vasco de Quiroga, a 16th-century Spanish bishop who came to New Spain and founded Utopian-style indigenous communities where agriculture and handicrafts were taught.
“We really don’t know what’s coming our way until everybody gets here”, said agency spokesman Ruben Jauregui.
“We can no longer pretend to be deaf in the face of one of the greatest environmental crises in history”, he said during the mass, returning to a favored theme of his papacy.
Francis addressed the Indigenous people with red fragments of the sacred Mayan writings, known as “Popol Vuh”.
“We grew up thinking we were proprietors and dominators [of nature], authorized to exfoliate it”, Francis said.
Chiapas, with some of the most biodiverse jungles in the country, has been the site intense conflict in recent years between those hoping to preserve protected areas and residents, including the indigenous, pushing into the forest for agriculture and other uses.
God’s son rose “so that darkness may not have the last word and dawn may not cease to rise on the lives of his sons and daughters”, the pope told the people.
“In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa, entire families of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being exterminated, entire villages and cities”, the declaration said. As pope, he penned an environmental encyclical denouncing the exploitation of the planet by the rich at the expense of the poor.
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“You have much to teach us”, he said, lauding Mexico’s native peoples while denouncing “the systemic and organized way your people have been misunderstood and excluded from society”.
