Mexico's Indians celebrated
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico — Pope Francis is celebrating Mexico’s Indians today with a visit to heavily indigenous Chiapas state, where he will preside over a Mass in three native languages thanks to a new Vatican decree approving their use in liturgy.
But the visit, at the midway mark of Francis’ five-day trip to Mexico, is also aimed at boosting the faith in the least Catholic state in Mexico.
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. Today, 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.
The Mexican hierarchy has long bristled at the region’s “Indian church,” a mixture of Catholicism and indigenous culture that includes pine boughs, eggs and references to “God the Father and Mother” in services. It was a tradition that was embraced by the late bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas, Samuel Ruiz, who ran afoul of both the Mexican church and the Vatican at times for his use of the local ways.
Today’s Mass will include readings, prayers and hymns in the three main indigenous languages of Chiapas: Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Chol, which are spoken by more than 1 million people, according to Mexico’s latest census. The Vatican has said the pope would present the official decree authorizing the languages to be used, some 50 years after the Second Vatican Council paved the way for Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than in Latin.
Despite the pope’s overture, residents of Chiapas said they believe Francis is coming mostly to confirm their faith, not their status as indigenous.
“It doesn’t matter that I’m indigenous; I think it’s more that I’m Catholic,” said Emanuel Gomez, a 22-year-old Tzotzil who planned to attend the Mass.
