Pope beatifies two martyrs on Mexican visit

With an embroidered Indian stole draped over his shoulders, a seemingly invigorated Pope John Paul II beatified two Mexican Indian martyrs and bade an emotional farewell to a nation that embraced him as an adoptive father.

The exuberant ceremony heavy on Indian languages, music and dance wound up a gruelling 11-day pilgrimage to the Americas aimed at reinforcing the church’s appeal to Indians to counter Protestant gains.

As he ended his fifth trip to Mexico, the Pope thanked the nation for its passionate welcome that saw millions pour into the streets to see him - as they did on every earlier visit.

“I go, but I do not leave,” he said, quoting a popular song. “Although I go, in my heart I remain.”

Shouts of “Don’t go! Don’t go!” rose from the crowd as he left the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Mariachis played “Las Golondrinas,” a song of farewell, as the pope boarded his plane for Rome and President Vicente Fox - who earlier caused an uproar over church-state relations - thanked the pope for his visit.

“For each of us, it was a promotion of spirituality,” he said after the pope boarded his plan.

“It leaves us with commitments to work together for the poorest, for the marginalised, for those excluded from development,” Fox said. “It also leaves us with a renewed commitment to Indian communities.”

The 82-year-old Pope was stooped and weary through much of the 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.

Yesterday the Pope smiled, tapped his fingers and at one point even sang along to Indian band music as dancers leapt and spun in feathered head-dresses.

The service included readings in seven Indian languages and included unusual borrowings from pre-Catholic Indian religious ceremonies. An Indian woman brushed herbs over the Pope and other clerics, a practice originally meant to cleanse one of illness and harmful spirits.

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.

The Pope said the two beatified Zapotecs “encourage indigenous people today to appreciate their cultures and languages and above all their dignity as the children of God”.

While Juan Diego, who lived in the 16th century, was highly popular, the two Zapotec Indians showed another face of the Church.

The two men were inspectors working for the Spanish colonial church - essentially informers helping to stamp out non-Christian practices rooted in native cultures. The case makes some uneasy, bringing a reminder that the triumph of Christianity in Latin America was sometimes a violent process.

In September 1700, the two men told authorities of an Indian religious ceremony. Colonial police raided the rite, and villagers enraged by the betrayal attacked the informers.

Fellow villagers “dragged them, hung them and finally decapitated them, cut open their sides to pull out their hearts and gave them to the dogs”, the Church says in accounts made public this year. The attackers, in turn, were decapitated and quartered.

Juan Diego, who was made a saint yesterday, was an Indian peasant to whom church tradition says the Virgin Mary appeared 500 years ago.

Yesterday saw another massive outpouring of Roman Catholic fervour in Mexico City, as people stood in deep lines along the Pope’s 11-mile route to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe for the beatification ceremony.

The Popemobile paused briefly and the Pope made the sign of the cross to bless what will be the new church dedicated to Juan Diego - a one-time church that had been used as a cinema.

Businessmen in three-piece suits and workers in paint-splattered overalls played hooky from work to join pilgrims who had journeyed hundreds of miles to get a glimpse of the pope.

“We want to feel a little of his presence. We wish he would never leave,” said Maria del Carmen Hernandez, a 47-year-old housewife from Naucalpan, just north west of Mexico City.

In a ceremony on Wednesday that drew more than a million cheering and weeping believers into the streets, the Pope called Juan Diego a catalyst in the conversion of millions of Indians to Christianity.

Although some question whether Juan Diego actually existed, John Paul stressed his importance as a man who helped join the worlds of Spain’s conquistadors and Mexico’s native peoples. But the Pope made clear that Indians - 10% of the population - have been let down by Mexican society.

“Mexico needs its indigenous peoples and these people need Mexico,” John Paul declared - a statement Fox echoed at the airport yesterday.

Following up on remarks on Tuesday in Guatemala, 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.”

The Pope, who suffers from symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and hip and knee problems, slumped in a gilded chair placed near Juan Diego’s cloak, straining to raise his head before speaking on Wednesday.

During Wednesday’s drive back from the basilica, a teenager was detained after allegedly fired an air gun at a policeman. He was released after officials determined the toy used a spring to fire plastic balls. The Pope was not nearby at the time.