Pope asks indigenous Mexicans for forgiveness

Pope Francis is visiting Morelia on Tuesday, the capital of Michoacan state, an area considered to be the heart of Mexico’s drug-trafficking country.

The pope told the crowd: “Let us all pray to the Virgin to take good care of us”.

“I lived in a tiny town that was very gentle, and then the (cartel) came in”, Duran added.

Tomorrow, he will travel by plane to Morelia, the capital of Michoacán, which became infamous some years back for the violence linked to the drug wars.

History’s first Latin American pope has already issued a sweeping apology for the Catholic Church’s colonial-era crimes against the continent’s indigenous.

Pope Francis, left, head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, center, and Cuba’s President Raul Castro stand together during a ceremony where the two religious leaders signed a joint declaration on religious unity at the Jose Marti International airport in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. “I prefer a family that makes repeated efforts to begin again to a society that is narcissistic and obsessed with luxury and comfort”.

It was a tradition that was embraced by Ruiz, who died in 2011 after some 40 years at the helm of the San Cristobal diocese.

In 2002, under Pope John Paul II, the Vatican asked the Chiapas diocese to halt deacon ordinations. Francis recently lifted the ban. On Monday, he’ll go further by celebrating their culture in ways the local church hierarchy has often sought to play down, in a clear demonstration of his belief that Indians have an important role to play in Mexico today.

Saying Jesus would never ask them to be “hit men”, Pope Francis begged young people in Mexico’s gang-infested heartland on Tuesday to shun the lure of easy money and big cars offered by drug traffickers.

The pope presented to the audience a Vatican decree authorizing use of the indigenous Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Chol languages, which were spoken aloud during biblical readings and hymns. Official approval for those languages is still pending.

As we have seen on his foreign trips to Latin American countries and in the United States, Francis has always called for respect and protection of the cultures of the indigenous peoples.

In San Cristobal, the pope acknowledged indigenous Mexicans have been “systematically and structurally” excluded by a society that fails to understand their ancient wisdom. 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.

Francis was referred to as “Tatik” on several occasions, a Tzotzil word meaning “father”.

Celebrating Mass on February 16 in a Mexican state that has been scarred by drug traffic, Pope Francis exhorted priests not to accept an acceptable situation.

“In this you have much to teach, to teach mankind”, he told the predominantly indigenous crowd, many of them in traditional dress.

The soft ethereal sounds of marimbas accompanied the opening the Mass in front of a replica of the brilliant yellow and red facade of the cathedral.

Despite the pope’s overture, residents of Chiapas said they believe Francis is coming mostly to confirm their faith, not their status as indigenous.

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.

The 17th century cathedral, built in the characteristic local pink stone with twin bell towers, was packed with cheering children as the Pope arrived on his way to a meeting with young people later in the afternoon. The pontiff’s Mass in Juarez will be telecast to a football stadium in El Paso, where more than 50,000 people are expected to watch.