Translated by: Amanda Coe
“It smells of sulfur.” This is probably what crossed the Pope’s mind when he stepped off the plane in Mexico City. Almost in unison, dozens, perhaps hundreds of angels and archangels flew silently above him fleeing the ceremonies and protocols turned into a spectacle. If there was anywhere in the world to hear the “Earth’s cry and the poor’s cry”—which Pope Francisco claimed to be the main challenges for the Church to address—together, it would be in Mexico. Inexorably, he is confronted with this in the political, economic, and church elite who have turned the country into hell. Here are statistics of the tragedy: 164,000 killed, 27,000 disappeared, dozens of journalists threatened or eliminated, 9 million young people without jobs or school.
For this reason, the Pope’s reception by political-economic and church elite was more than significant as he seeks renovation, decency and a return to the social gospel as a means to rid the Catholic church of its crisis. The well-known devils, disguised demons, impeccably dressed and perfumed Lucifers waited for him. The cabinet members of the federal government filed before the Pope, so that he clearly saw a mosaic of sinners: satraps, power drunks, merchant accomplices, abettors, criminals, corrupt, traitors to their ideals, landowners, utter egoists, as well as arrogant and immoral governors. No less was the case with the leaders of the Mexican Church, where there are many hidden enemies to the Holy Father’s renovation. In the spectacle, even the first “breech of protocol” was an organized meeting with a group of Televisa singers arranged by the President’s wife [Angélica Rivera, aka "La Gaviota", "The Seagull", soap opera star].
Can you be with Nature and the poor while conversing with the devils who perpetuate hell? Don't you lose the renovated Church by accepting the spectacles hastily prepared by the power that oppresses and honours double exploitation? Doesn't it discredit the Church to concede to those whom the citizens know maintain the flames and sacrifices? Are words enough? The image of an illegitimate, corrupt, repressive president, who abets criminals and probably receives illicit funds, taking mass and receiving communion like a holy sheep, is one of the most despicable acts of mutual concession between Church and State: the shamelessness of the president validated in the very house of God.
It was the televised statement of the old apothegm that “religion is the opiate of the people.” What can a human being confess when his government sends 4,000 Mexicans into poverty each day? How can he be considered Christian when he allows and sponsors aggression against nature by big business in 420 sites in the country? What priest can forgive that and more? How much did the President pay to achieve consent to receive sacred communion? Does he bribe everyone?
The indigenous mass in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas was another thing: the old Catholicism, rocky, moldy, Eurocentric, and distant from its history, was legitimately rejuvenated by the voice of indigenous peoples. The enormous strength of the hybrid liturgy, the echoes of Mesoamerican spirituality converging with a tolerant Christianity, the joy of cultures that live and permanently nourish themselves from the natural world resulted in an enchanting ceremony. Indigenous theology has been persecuted and threatened for more than half a century there, yet, the people carried out a “participative mass” with a “heart full of flowers,” and finally created a church for the Earth and the poor.
Another issue is the exploitation of Mexican labor. This is where the large parasites, arrogant and sumptuous magnates, named [Carlos] Slim, [Alberto] Bailleres, [Ricardo] Salinas, [Emilio] Azcárraga, [all multi-billionaires] etc., that can never “go through the eye of the needle,” [Jesus, Matt. 19:24] and whose emporiums are supported by neoliberal governments through the infamous Minimum (or negligible?) Wage Commission [current daily minimum wage is US$4. Various jobs pay some multiple of this.]. In Mexico, not all poor people are excluded or marginalized souls; rather they are a workforce that is promptly exploited by national and multinational companies. Most are workers and their respective families exploited in favor of most of the unions, true institutions at the service of the employer ["company unions"], led by very old, corrupt leaders. The depreciation of wages up to 70 percent, confirms this other dimension of hell [since peso devaluation in the 1980s].
We will see if the Pope in his homily in Morelia [capital of Michoacán], a land taken by criminals in collusion with the federal, state, and municipal governments, recognizes the unjustified situation of the Costa and Tierra Caliente [Pacific Coast and Hot Country regions, centers of organized crime] of Michoacán, and especially the 383 political prisoners led by Dr. José Manuel Mireles. If he is consistent, his words should touch the issue of self-defense, which is a legitimate mechanism for citizens to protect their lives against State immobility and collusion. This would also highlight the Guerrero community police and the symbolic case of Nestora Salgado, as well as those cases of dozens of political prisoners in that state and in Puebla, Veracruz, Quintana Roo and Morelos. And, naturally, the 43 [disappeared Ayotzinapa students]! [The Pope did not mention any of this in Morelia.]
The Pope’s word has clout. But as much as it is direct rather than metaphorical, as much as it is said in a timely and careful manner, it will not be enough if not accompanied, in the immediate future, by concrete actions from the Vatican with its allies in all areas and, specifically, in full solidarity with the majority, with the defenders of their lives and all life. That will require self-criticism. Spanish Original
*Víctor M. Toledo, a Mexican biologist with a Ph.D. from National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), has combined his scientific training with studies in economic policies, agrarian cultures and rural sociology. Toledo is an expert in ethno-ecology whose studies and theoretical contributions regarding the relations between indigenous cultures and the natural world enjoy international recognition.