Pope winds down tour with Mexican ceremony

WITH more than a million Mexicans celebrating in the streets in a show of affection, a frail Pope John Paul II wound up a gruelling pilgrimage yesterday with the beatification of two Mexican Indians.

The 82-year-old pope was stooped and weary on the last leg of a trip that began in Canada for World Youth Day and continued to Guatemala and Mexico. But he delivered all his scheduled speeches, tried to walk some steps and spoke in a clearer voice than he has for months. He departed yesterday afternoon for Rome.

The beatifications of Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Angeles, Zapotec Indians, came a day after the pope made Juan Diego the first Indian saint in the Americas. Beatification is the last formal step before possible sainthood.

“Mexico needs its indigenous peoples and these people need Mexico”, Pope John Paul declared, setting an agenda for his church, which is battling inroads among Indians by evangelical Protestants.

The pontiff appealed for better treatment for Indians in the Americas. He asked Mexicans to help create “greater justice and solidarity” for all, and to “support the indigenous peoples in their legitimate aspirations, respecting and defending the authentic values of each ethnic group”.

During the pope’s drive back from the basilica after the canonisation of Juan Diego, a teenager fired an air rifle at a policeman guarding the route. The officer was hit but not seriously hurt, and the youth was arrested, according to police spokesman Oscar Hernandez. He said the pope was not in the vicinity when the shot was fired.