Pope Beatifies Mexico Indians Who Spied For Church

by Diego Cevallos

In the final ceremony of his three-day visit to Mexico, the pope, animated and smiling, beatified (the step prior to declaring sainthood) Zapotec Indians Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Angeles.

In 1700, the two "martyrs" were tortured and killed by members of their own community in retaliation for having served as informants to Church authorities about Native religious ceremonies.

The beatification followed the canonization Wednesday of Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, who is revered for having witnessed the apparition of the Virgin Mary. John Paul II described the new Native saint as "humble and small".

The pope toured the streets of Mexico City in the vehicle known as the "pope-mobile," surrounded by throngs of people who expressed their veneration and excitement about his presence through their tears and shouts.

"I am leaving, but I am not leaving. I am leaving but I will not be absent, because although I leave, in my heart I stay... Beautiful Mexico, may God bless you," said John Paul II in the beatification ceremony of the two Indians, which took place in the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, in the centre of the Mexican capital.

The central theme of the pope's messages during his fifth visit to Mexico in his 24 years as international leader of the Roman Catholic Church was of respect for Native peoples, the country's poorest social group.

"It is necessary to attend to their legitimate aspirations, respecting and defending the authentic values of each ethnic group," he said.

Ten percent of the Mexican population of 100 million are Native, and this country has the second largest Catholic population in Catholic-dominant Latin America, after Brazil.

Individuals in colorful Native dress, the burning of incense and words spoken in local Native languages marked the beatification of Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Angeles, who the Catholic Church considers martyrs, but who some Indians here maintain were traitors to their race and culture.

In their time, the two Indians were entrusted by priests with monitoring and informing on their own communities to prevent ceremonies the Church considered heretical.

The killers, who had resisted the presence of the Catholics and defended their traditions that dated back to before the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, were tried, quartered and their remains exhibited for the community to see.

The newly beatified Indians, "fruit of the holiness of the first evangelization... motivate today's Indians to appreciate their cultures and their languages and, above all, their dignity as children of God, which all others must respect in the context of the Mexican nation, plural in the origins of its peoples and willing to build a common family in solidarity and justice," said the pope.

There are an example of how, without making ancestral customs into myths, "one can reach God without renouncing one's own culture, but allowing oneself to be illuminated by the light of Christ, who renews the religious spirit of the best traditions of the people," he added.

In the ceremony canonizing Juan Diego, presented by the Catholic hierarchy as a submissive and humble Indian who in 1531 witnessed the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe, John Paul II stated that "Mexico needs its Indians, and Indians need Mexico."

Meanwhile, the Vatican maintains its ban on ordaining Indians from the southern Mexican state of Chiapas as deacons, claiming they do not receive adequate education and training. It also rejects the theology of "liberation" that was promoted by the former bishop of Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz.

Jorge Medina, prefect of the Congregation for the Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, stated Sunday that the Vatican would never accept any "Indian" theology or other autochthonous church.

In Mexico, where the Church hierarchy repeatedly criticised the work of Ruiz, there are no Native bishops and there are few individuals working on behalf of these different ethnic groups.

"The only thing the Church wants with the Juan Diego canonization and the two martyrs is to stop us from advancing towards achieving recognition of our rights," said Adelfo Regino, leader of the National Indigenous Congress.

"We are bearers of our own religious beliefs, that which we inherited from our ancestors and has profound respect for nature. That is the Indian religion that was attacked, persecuted and mutilated during colonization," said Regino.

"Neither Juan Diego, Jacinto de los Angeles nor Juan Bautista are going to dignify the indigenous peoples. What we want is for our rights to be recognized so that we are no longer the countries forgotten ones," said Jacobo Baltazar, a Zapotec leader.