SILAO, Mexico (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI urged Mexicans to wield their faith against evils such as drug violence before hundreds of thousands of worshippers on Sunday, saying they would find hope if they purify their hearts.
Benedict delivered the message during an open-air Mass in the shadow of the Christ the King monument, one of the most important symbols of Mexican Christianity, which recalls the 1920s Roman Catholic uprising against the anti-clerical laws that forbade public worship services such as the one Benedict celebrated.
The pope flew over the monument in a Mexican military Superpuma helicopter en route to the Mass at Bicentennial Park, where he rode in the popemobile through an enthusiastic crowd that was expected to reach 350,000.
Often seen as austere and reserved, Benedict charmed the cheering crowd by donning a broad-brimmed Mexican sombrero that he wore on his way to the altar at the sun-drenched park.
“We pray for him to help us, that there be no more violence in the country,” said Lorena Diaz, 50, who owns a jeans factory in Leon. “We pray that he gives us peace.”
Before the Mass, the vast field was filled with noise as people took pictures with their cellphones and passed around food. But as the Mass started, all fell silent, some dropping to their knees in the dirt and gazing at the altar or giant video screens.
In his homily, Benedict encouraged Mexicans to purify their hearts to confront the sufferings, difficulties and evils of daily life. It has been a common theme in his first visit to Mexico as pope: On Saturday he urged the young to be messengers of peace in a country that has witnessed the deaths of more than 47,000 people in a drug war that has escalated during a government offensive against cartels.
“At this time when so many families are separated or forced to emigrate, when so many are suffering due to poverty, corruption, domestic violence, drug trafficking, the crisis of values and increased crime, we come to Mary in search of consolation, strength and hope,” Benedict said in a prayer at the end of Mass.
“She is the mother of the true God, who invites us to stay with faith and charity beneath her mantle, so as to overcome in this way all evil and to establish a more just and fraternal society.”
The reference to Mary is particularly important for Mexicans, who revere the Virgin of Guadalupe as their patron saint. His reference to immigration resonated in Gunanajuato, which is one of the top three Mexican states that sends migrant workers north.
“People leave for the good of their families,” said Jose Porfirio Garcia Martinez, 56, an indigenous farmworker who came to the Mass with 35 others from Puebla. “For us it’s difficult, not seeing them for 10 years, communicating by phone and by Internet.”
Benedict wanted to come to Guanajuato because it was one of the parts of Mexico that Pope John Paul II never visited during his five trips as pope. In addition, Benedict wanted to see and bless the Christ the King statue.
With its outstretched arms, the 72-foot bronze monument of Christ “expresses an identity of the Mexican people that contains a whole history in relation to the testimony of faith and those who fought for religious freedom at the time,” said Monsignor Victor Rene Rodriguez, secretary general of the Mexican bishops conference.
After nightfall Sunday, the pope will remotely inaugurate its new lighting system.
Guanajuato state was the site of some of the key battles of the Cristero War, so called because its protagonists said they were fighting for Christ the King. Historians say about 90,000 people died before peace was restored. The region remains Mexico’s most conservatively Catholic.
With roads closed, pilgrims walked for miles to the Mass with plastic lawn chairs, water and backpacks. Old women walked with canes. Some Mass-goers wrapped themselves in blankets or beach-towel-sized Vatican flags, trekking past vendors selling sun hats, flags, potato chips and bottles of juice.
Hundreds of young priests in white surplices and black cassocks, waiting to pass through the metal detectors, shouted, “Christ lives!” and “Long live Christ the King!” — the battle cry of the Cristeros.
Many Mexicans said they were surprised by the warmth of Benedict, whose image is more reserved and academic than his popular predecessor, John Paul II, who was dubbed “Mexico’s pope.”
By Sunday morning, that seemed to have changed completely.
“Some young people rejected the pope, saying he has an angry face, but now they see him like a grandfather,” said Cristian Roberto Cerda Reynoso, 17, a seminarian from Leon. “I see the youth filled with excitement and enthusiasm.”
While the pope drew a rapturous response from the faithful, his second day in Mexico was not without criticism, particularly concerning the church’s treatment of children and sexual abuse.
Victims of Marcial Maciel, the founder of the influential conservative Legionaries of Christ religious order, launched a book Saturday containing documents from the Vatican archives showing that Holy See officials knew for decades that Maciel was a drug addict who sexually abused his seminarians.
The 84-year-old pope, who will be going to Cuba on Monday, did not directly address the scandal during his limited remarks Saturday. But the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the pontiff’s words about the need to protect children from violence referred also to the need to protect them from priestly sexual violence.
Nicole Winfield reported from Leon, Mexico. AP writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Guanajuato, Mexico, and E. Eduardo Castillo in Leon contributed to this report.
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