Mexico awaits Pope Francis
(Vatican Radio) Here in
Mexico city the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas
is everywhere. It’s plastered on taxis, in shops, in homes and in the most
unlikely places.
No surprise as in the past
even Mexican revolutionaries carried her image into battle. She’s ‘Our Lady of
Guadalupe’, Patroness of the Americas. She represents the spiritual heart of
the nation. Her image is that of a ‘mestizo’, symbolic of that blend of Spanish
Catholicism and American religious traditions.
The same cannot be said for
images of Pope Francis around town, they are far and few between. Most of those
I saw were related to publicity. But two bumper billboards were significant.
They related to two of the three areas of Mexico Pope Francis will be visiting.
They are Chiapas along the border with Guatemala home to a large indigenous,
population and Michoacàn hotspot of the drug cartels. Chiapas and
Michoacàn clearly want to welcome Pope Francis in the capital city as well.
I haven’t seen any relating
to the third and last stop on the Pope’s itinerary, Ciudad Juarez on that
economic divide represented by the border with the United States. Once dubbed
the murder capital of the world it’s where the dreams of a better future for
many migrants, those who make it that far, are most often dashed.
But this is the city
most featured in the Mexican press right now for a very specific reason.
It seems that the families of the forty- three young ‘desaparecidos’ seeking
for answers to outcome of their young sons, are going to be sitting in the
front rows during Holy Mass. And speculation is rife as to whether there will
be a private encounter with Pope Francis.
This lack of images around
town doesn’t mean that people don’t know the first Latin American Pope is
coming to town on Friday 12th of February.
Everyone, really everyone I
speak to here in the streets, knows their first Latin American pope is going to
be riding his pope mobile through the streets here. No surprise as it’s their
only chance to catch a glimpse of him close to.
One TV show I came across
even featured a toy pope mobile running pone through a ‘maquette’ of Mexico
City and newspapers feature cartoons showing aggressive politicians all wanting
to jump on to the pope mobile at once.
There’s definitely a warmth
surrounding the arrival of Pope Francis here as he comes as ‘missionary of
peace’. And I think he’d agree with Mexican Nobel laureate Octavio Paz who once
wrote that Our Lady of Guadalupe’s " inspirational story is impressed on
the heart of Mexico". Adding how "she is the solace of the poor, the
shield of the weak and oppressed". After all Pope Francis has said
he is coming here as a pilgrim to spend time with the people of Mexico, to walk
with them, especially with those in the ‘peripheries’. To walk with this people
that does not forget its Mother , the Mother who forged her people in hope”.
In Mexico City awaiting
the arrival of Pope Francis, I’m Veronica Scarisbrick
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