Pope Francis’ visit to Mexico February 12-17 will be of a pastoral nature and he will not be making any political statements during his six-day stay here, Vatican sources say.
Nonetheless, the pontiff’s schedule has been carefully arranged to give maximum exposure to themes in his agenda that he cares about deeply, including issues affecting migrants, indigenous people and youth.
Some U.S. hardliners, however, might construe his plan to walk to the edge of the Rio Grande to kneel and pray for the more than 6,000 people who lost their lives trying to cross the U.S. border in the past 15 years as an ambiguous political act. His advisors say he will simply show respect for the human dignity of migrants and their families.
Pointedly, the pope ends his visit with an outdoor mass at the Ciudad Juarez fairgrounds. The fence that separates the United States and Mexico will be visible behind the altar, some reports suggest.
During his tenure, Pope Francis has made many pleas on behalf of migrants and those fleeing persecution, making it a central theme of his pontificate. In a Mass held at the Vatican on World Day of Migrants and Refugees, the Pope told an audience of 5,000 migrants and refugees: “Each of you carry in yourselves a history, a culture, precious values … Many of you have experienced misery, oppression and fear. Don’t let anyone rob you of this hope and the joy for life.” Last month, in a speech to the Vatican diplomatic corps, he said, “There is no place for autonomous solutions pursued by individual states” when dealing with the mass movement of people. In Philadelphia last September, Francis reminded Americans how immigrants brought “gifts” which helped to “renew” the United States. “Never be ashamed of your traditions,” he said.
In addition to Ciudad Juarez, Francis will visit Mexico City, crime-plagued regions of Michoacan and Mexico State, and the impoverished southern state of Chiapas.
Some theologians argue that his day-long trip to Chiapas on February 15 is the most important on the agenda as far as the Catholic Church is concerned. While 81 percent of Mexicans still consider themselves Catholic, the number in Chiapas has dropped to around 64 percent, such has been the rise of Protestant, mainly Pentecostal, religions. As well as celebrating a Mass for indigenous peoples – to include local Mayan languages – he will pray at the tomb of “Liberation Theologist” Bishop Samuel Ruiz in the San Cristobal de Las Casas cathedral. A churchman who was frequently at odds with the Catholic hierarchy for trying to incorporate indigenous traditions into the religious mainstream, Ruiz died in 2011 at the age of 86. Sometimes branded a communist, his unique kind of pastoral approach is highly valued by Francis, who, after becoming pope, reversed a ban the ordination of indigenous deacons imposed after Ruiz’s retirement, and also approved liturgies in indigenous languages.
The highlight of the visit for many Mexicans will be undoubtedly be the pope’s February 13 visit to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City, the nation’s most important religious shrine. More than three million people visit this shrine each year to view the life-size image of a brown-skinned Virgin Mary that miraculously appeared on the cloak of Juan Diego, a humble peasant, in 1531. Its significance as a religious and national symbol is not lost on Pope Francis, who has often manifested his devotion to the Virgin Mary. According to the Catholic Register, during his visit to Mexico the pope intends to “lift up the Virgin of Guadalupe as the star of the new evangelization.” Such is the drawing power of “Our Lady of Guadalupe” that many non-Catholics or non-practicing Catholics consider themselves devotees of “Guadalupanos.”
Pope Francis also plans to address drug trafficking and violence during his stay in Mexico. A key element will be his meeting with young people in Morelia on February 16. Over the past decade, the state of Michoacan has been overrun by narco violence, the rise of self-defense groups and the growing devotion to quasi religious cults such as Santa Muerte (Saint Death). Significantly, the pope recently appointed Michoacan’s first cardinal, Archbishop of Morelia Alberto Suarez Inda, who had bravely spoken out about the violence and fear generated by the state’s organized crime gangs.
Security will be extremely tight throughout the visit, especially during the six-mile motorcade that will take Francis to a Mass for 300,000 people into the town of Ecatepec, State of Mexico on February 14. Cardinal Suarez Inda said the pope has not asked for any special precautions to be taken so that he can be “close to the people.”
Federal authorities, however, are deploying 10,000 extra police officers, and dioceses around the country have instructed parishioners to form “human barriers” to maintain order during the motorcades and at masses.
Around 880,000 tickets to see Pope Francis are being distributed among Catholic dioceses.
The pope will begins his visit with a meeting with President Enrique Peña Nieto at the Presidential Palace on February 13. He leaves from Ciudad Juarez the evening of February 17.