Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Guanajuato (Agenzia Fides) - Pope Benedict XVI will be the first pontiff to set foot in Guanajuato, a state which is protagonist for the movement for Mexican independence and imbued with mysticism, because in its territory much of the history of Catholicism in the country was written. Situated in central Mexico, Guanajuato is known as "the most Catholic State of Mexico". In its legal system there are some of the basic principles of the Catholic Church, such as the prohibition of abortion and protection of life from conception. Benedict XVI’s predecessor, Blessed Pope John Paul II visited Mexico five times, including the capital, but never went to Guanajuato.
In a note sent to Fides, His Exc. Mgr.Victor Rene Rodriguez Gomez, Auxiliary Bishop of Texcoco and Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference, said that the Pope’s visit also has a "symbolic meaning", at a patriotic and Catholic level because in the collective memory of the Mexicans the struggle for independence from Spain in 1810, was born there, in Guanajuato, when the priest Miguel Hidalgo called the people to take up arms, carrying a banner depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe. One of the main motivations of the Pope's trip is the celebration of the Bicentennial of the independence of several Latin American countries.
Mgr. Victor Rene Rodriguez Gomez also points out that in the history of Mexico, between 1926 and 1929 the so-called "Cristero War" took place, when Catholics took up arms to fight the federal government which had imposed restrictions on the Church, forbidding the celebration of Masses in public and to the priests to wear the cassock outside churches. The clashes occurred in the downtown area of the country (at the time known as "El Bajio"), which belongs to Guanajuato. During those years and those that followed, thousands of people died, including a number of Catholics who participated in that bloody war and who were considered martyrs. Pope John Paul II canonized in 2000, 25 of them.
"Guanajuato has thus a symbolic meaning - concludes Mgr. Victor Rene Rodriguez Gomez -. The Pope will not go to the Basilica of Guadalupe, which is the main representative temple of the Catholic Mexicans, but in the area of Guanajuato we have the monument of Cristo Rey, on the hill of Cubilete, which expresses the identity of the Mexican people in its history concerning the witness of faith of those who fought for religious freedom". (CE) (Agenzia Fides 23/3/2012)
