(Vatican Radio) Our correspondent covering the papal visit to Mexico is Veronica Scarisbrick who looks at the main political, social and economic problems afflicting the Latin America nation. Listen to Veronica Scarisbrick’s report: Mexico is a land of contrasts, of deep religiosity and helpless violence.Where the people who are 80% mestizo are part of their colonial past but represent both conquerors and conquered.Where in popular spirituality there’s a blend of Spanish Catholicism and native American religious traditions somehow united in the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.Where despite signs of improvement at an economic level, with an emerging middle class tied to its northern neighbour the United States, most people live in what the nation’s President Enrique Pena Nieto has admitted is “backwardness and poverty” while a happy few prosper.Pope Francis comes as ‘a messenger of peace’ during this Jubilee Y...
(Vatican Radio) Our correspondent covering the papal visit to Mexico is Veronica Scarisbrick who looks at the main political, social and economic problems afflicting the Latin America nation.
Listen to Veronica Scarisbrick’s report:
Mexico is a land of contrasts, of deep religiosity and helpless violence.
Where the people who are 80% mestizo are part of their colonial past but represent both conquerors and conquered.
Where in popular spirituality there’s a blend of Spanish Catholicism and native American religious traditions somehow united in the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Where despite signs of improvement at an economic level, with an emerging middle class tied to its northern neighbour the United States, most people live in what the nation’s President Enrique Pena Nieto has admitted is “backwardness and poverty” while a happy few prosper.
Pope Francis comes as ‘a messenger of peace’ during this Jubilee Year of Mercy. But while he has said he isn’t coming to Mexico to solve problems he has also outlined these problems beginning with the drug issue, drugs which he has described as “messengers of death”.
His exact words to the Mexican people in an interview with the agency ‘Notimex’ were: “If I come to you it is to receive the best of you and to pray with you”. But then he did add that he did not want to sweep under the carpet the Mexico of violence. On the contrary his message on this occasion was to urge Mexicans to fight against corruption, against war, against disunity, against organised crime, against human trafficking.
Pope Francis knows all too well that many of his priests here are doing exactly that at a grass roots level. Speaking to some of them here , like Bishop Raul Vera Lopez who outlined to me the root causes of the escalating issue of the ‘desaparecidos’ I was astonished at the courage he had in denouncing uncomfortable truths in which these contrasts emerge. Truths related to abuse of human rights he communicated to Pope Francis in the Vatican in December of last year.
But while Mexico may be a land of contrasts Pope Francis is not a man of extremes, he believes in dialogue and his message is always the same. It’s contained in a document he helped pen as Cardinal Jorge Maria Bergoglio of Buenos Aires in 2007. It’s the ‘Aparecida’ document which encapsulates his vision of the Church. A document he’s presented to all of the Latin American heads of State he’s met since the beginning of his pontificate. If that’s correct that includes Mexico’s President, Enrique Pena Nieto.
The message of that document is that of a preferential and evangelical option for the poor. And on February 12th of February he comes to walk through the peripheries with the people in a missionary drive as part of a service to humanity and the environment here in Mexico. Mexico... a word which means the navel of the moon.
Awaiting Pope Francis in Mexico, I’m Veronica Scarisbrick
Adoration. / Thoom / Shutterstock.CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).Did you know that it is possible to sing a special song of adoration on Holy Thursday and have your soul purified?It's true, and the song is "Tantum Ergo."First, some background...A plenary indulgence is a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove all temporal punishment due to sin.What does this mean?"An indulgence does not confer grace. An indulgence is not a remission of the guilt due to sin. The guilt due to sin is ordinarily taken away by the sacraments of baptism and penance (confession), in which we receive forgiveness for sins through Jesus Christ," the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) explains in this helpful Q&A."Although guilt is taken away, and with it the eternal penalty that is due to sin, namely, damnation, the eternal loss of the presence of God, there remain consequences for sins that those who have committed them ...
Asian elephant. / Credit: Filiz Elaerts / Unsplash (CC0)CNA Newsroom, Mar 27, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).Despite repeated protests from Catholic bishops, wildlife attacks continue to pose a severe threat to the lives and properties of both Catholics and other residents in the Southern Indian state of Kerala. On Wednesday, local media reported significant damage from two elephants in Kerala's Idukki district, alongside a tiger's attack on livestock. This year alone, elephant attacks have resulted in 27 fatalities in the region. Video footage of a Catholic man trampled to death on Feb. 10 made headlines and sparked protests, only to be followed by news of a potential mauling by a tiger of a Catholic woman on her way to Mass four days after the fatal attack. Further fatal elephant tramplings followed the incident.The Catholic Church in Kerala has been leading the charge in urging the government to take decisive action to protect human lives. "The series of shocking ...
Catholic faithful offer prayers during an Ash Wednesday Mass at St. Mary's Basilica in Secunderabad, the twin city of Hyderabad in India on Feb. 14, 2024. / Credit: NOAH SEELAM/AFP via Getty ImagesBangalore, India, Mar 27, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).A watchdog group that monitors violence committed against Christians in India has released a study documenting 161 such crimes in the first 75 days of 2024.These numbers may underestimate the number of crimes and acts of persecution committed against Christians in India, according to A.C. Michael, a Catholic and coordinator of the United Christian Forum (UCF), which released the report. "These figures are based only on the complaints registered on our toll-free helpline number (1-800-208-4545) to report incidents of anti-Christian violence. The actual numbers will be certainly much more," Michael told CNA on March 27."We feel frustrated that despite documenting and making public the shocking data regularly, there has been no re...