{"id":14265,"date":"2016-02-17T09:03:49","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T17:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/francis-to-mexico-priests-dont-be-resigned\/"},"modified":"2016-02-17T09:03:49","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T17:03:49","slug":"francis-to-mexico-priests-dont-be-resigned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/francis-to-mexico-priests-dont-be-resigned\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis to Mexico priests: Don’t be resigned"},"content":{"rendered":"

MORELIA, Mexico \u2014 <\/strong>Pope Francis urged Mexico\u2019s priests on Tuesday to fight injustice and not resign themselves to the drug-fueled violence and corruption around them, issuing a set of marching orders to shake up a Mexican church known for its cozy ties to the rich and powerful.<\/p>\n

Francis traveled to a hotbed of Mexico\u2019s drug trade for a Mass with the country\u2019s priests and nuns. It was the first event of a daylong visit to Morelia, the capital of Michoacan state, that includes a meeting with young people, a fixture of papal trips that often produces some of the most memorable and spontaneous moments.<\/p>\n

Francis\u2019 visit was also a symbolic vote of confidence for the city\u2019s archbishop, Alberto Suarez Inda. Like Francis, Suarez Inda has called for Mexican bishops to be closer to their people and not act like bureaucrats or princes. Last year Francis made him a cardinal \u2014 an unambiguous sign that Francis wants \u201cperipheral\u201d pastors like him at the helm of the church hierarchy.<\/p>\n

In his homily, Francis admonished the priests and nuns to not become resigned to the problems around them or give in to paralysis, which he called the devil\u2019s \u201cfavorite weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat temptation can come to us from places often dominated by violence, corruption, drug trafficking, disregard for human dignity and indifference in the face of suffering and vulnerability? What temptation might we suffer over and over again when faced with this reality, which seems to have become a permanent system?\u201d Francis asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we can sum it up in one word: resignation.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a clear reference to the situation in Michoacan, a major methamphetamine production hub, as well as the nation at large, where gangs and drug lords have thrived thanks in part to the complicity of police and other public authorities. <\/p>\n

Rather than give up in the face of such corruption, Francis urged the clerics to look to the model of Vasco de Quiroga, a 16th-century Spanish bishop who came to New Spain and founded Utopian-style indigenous communities where agriculture and handicrafts were taught.<\/p>\n

A Franciscan, he was affectionately known as \u201cTata Vasco,\u201d or \u201cFather Vasco\u201d in the Purepecha language.<\/p>\n

Francis said that when Vasco de Quiroga saw Indians being \u201csold, humiliated and homeless in marketplaces\u201d due to colonial exploitation, he did not resign himself to inaction but rather was inspired to fight injustice.<\/p>\n

Since beginning his Mexico trip Friday night, Francis has repeatedly taken to task the Mexican church leadership, many of whom are closely linked to Mexico\u2019s political and financial elite and are loath to speak out on behalf of the poor and victims of social injustice.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the violence has made us give up, either out of discouragement, habit or fear,\u201d said Fausto Mendez, a 23-year-old seminarian who attended Tuesday\u2019s Mass. \u201cThat\u2019s why the pope comes to tell us not to be afraid to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday in Mexico City, Francis scolded what he called gossiping, career-minded and aloof clerics, and admonished them to stand by their flock and offer \u201cprophetic courage\u201d in facing down the drug trade. In an inscription in a seminary guestbook, he urged future priests to be pastors of God and not \u201cclerics of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough on Saturday he spoke strongly to the bishops, it was also directed at us,\u201d said Uriel Perez, 20-year-old seminarian at Tuesday\u2019s Mass. \u201cBecause the pope is demanding and he wants us to be prepared and on the streets shoulder to shoulder with our flock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suarez Inda clearly backs Francis\u2019 program, echoing the pope\u2019s admonition that \u201cpastors should not be bureaucrats and we bishops should not have the mentality or attitude of princes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2013, at what was perhaps the height of the violence in Michoacan, Suarez Inda led eight other bishops in signing an unusually outspoken letter accusing government authorities of \u201ccomplicity, forced or willing,\u201d with criminal gangs. It urged priests to \u201cdo whatever is in your power\u201d to help people in an atmosphere of kidnappings, killings and extortion and to \u201ccarry out concrete actions in favor of peace and reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has called for Mexico\u2019s church leaders to put aside their comfortable lives and become pastors with the \u201csmell of their sheep.\u201d It\u2019s a famous phrase of the pope\u2019s about the need for bishops to accompany their flock closely through life\u2019s ups and downs.<\/p>\n

The pope \u201cshakes up the conscience of priests in order that we not be mediocre, installed priests who simply seek social promotion, but rather that we truly live our calling to serve the people with great generosity,\u201d Suarez Inda told the Mexican newspaper El Universal last month.<\/p>\n

Suarez Inda was also part of a group of clergy from Michoacan and neighboring Guerrero state who prepared a report on Mexico\u2019s drug violence last year that he said left Francis \u201cvery shocked and impressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of Michoacan is part of a region called Tierra Caliente, or the Hot Lands, known for both its blistering temperatures and brutal tactics by gangsters eager to control lucrative drug-production territory and smuggling routes.<\/p>\n

By 2013, the pseudo-religious, evangelical-inspired Knights Templar cartel was widely kidnapping and extorting money and dominating the state\u2019s economic and political scene, so much so that local farmers took up arms against them. But the uprising by the vigilante-style \u201cself-defense\u201d forces brought little peace to the state, with the groups fighting among themselves even as new criminal gangs sprang up or tried to muscle their way into Michoacan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited about the pope\u2019s visit, but the reality is that people are afraid. Right now there is a festive atmosphere and a lot of police, but in the day-to-day it\u2019s not that calm. Crime has risen,\u201d said Yulisa Duran, an 18-year-old nursing student sitting with her boyfriend in Morelia\u2019s main square.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived in a tiny town that was very gentle, and then the (cartel) came in,\u201d Duran added.<\/p>\n

Francis wraps up his five-day visit on Wednesday by traveling to Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, for a cross-border Mass expected to focus heavily on the plight of migrants.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Winfield and Orsi reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Nicole Winfield on Twitter: www.twitter.com\/nwinfield<\/p>\n

Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com\/Peter_Orsi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MORELIA, Mexico \u2014 Pope Francis urged Mexico\u2019s priests on Tuesday to fight injustice and not resign themselves to the drug-fueled violence and corruption around them, issuing a set of marching orders to shake up a Mexican church known for its cozy ties to the rich and powerful. Francis traveled to a hotbed of Mexico\u2019s drug […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14265"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}