Pope's tough words in Mexico won't create 'miracle'

Pope Francis delighted many in Mexico by taking political and religious leaders to task during his trip, but he also stayed silent on thorny issues such as pedophilia scandals and high-profile crimes.

He bluntly denounced corruption, drug trafficking, the exploitation of indigenous groups and the tragic lives of migrants before returning to the Vatican late Wednesday after a five-day visit.

Addressing political leaders, including President Enrique Pena Nieto, he urged them to provide their nation with "effective security."

Bishops, he said, needed to show "prophetic courage" against drug violence.

While his words were comforting to many Mexicans, experts say his message is unlikely to change the course of a country that has endured 10 years of drug violence that has left 100,000 people dead or missing.

"The pope can't do brain transplants," said Elio Masferrer, religion expert at the National School of Anthropology and History.
"It wouldn't be reasonable to think that the pope can come and miraculously change Mexico's reality."

- Pope owes a 'debt' -

The pope himself had warned before his trip that he was not coming as a "Wise King" bearing solutions.

"The pope didn't come to Mexico to resolve its problems," the Vatican's ambassador to Mexico, archbishop Christophe Pierre, told AFP. "He wants to give hope and strength."

But the pope steered clear of some controversial issues.
He avoided the pedophilia scandal of the ultraconservative Legion of Christ congregation, whose late founder, Marcial Maciel, was accused of committing sexual abuses. Francis granted the group a religious pardon in October.

The pope also stayed silent about a crime that triggered protests against Pena Nieto's administration: The 2014 disappearance of 43 students who were abducted by corrupt police officers.

"The pope has a debt regarding those two issues," said Bernardo Barranco, a renowned Mexican religious expert.

Parents of the 43 teacher trainees, who authorities believe were killed by a drug gang, tried in vain to have a private audience with the pope.

They were given three tickets to the pontiff's last mass in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez on Wednesday, but they lacked the means to go, according to their lawyer.
The lawyer, Vidulfo Rosales, told local radio that the parents, most of whom are Catholic, were left with "a bad taste in their mouths" and "desperation toward the church."

On the plane back to Rome, Francis told reporters that he invited them and relatives of other missing people to one of his masses because it was "almost impossible" for him to privately meet everyone, and there was also "infighting" among them.

He also noted that he decried violence in his masses.

- Catholic decline -

Mexico is the world's second biggest Catholic country, with 82 percent of its 120 million people followers of the religion.

But some parts of the country are turning to other faiths, especially in the southern impoverished state of Chiapas, where only 58 percent say they are Catholic.

"The Mexican Catholic church is out of date. It is not attentive of its flock's problems," Masferrer said.

Barranco said the church leadership in Mexico is "very cozy with the (political) power, in a comfort zone."

During a speech at the cathedral of Mexico City, the pope urged bishops not to act like "princes" and avoid falling into "gossip or intrigue, in conceited schemes of careerism, in empty plans for superiority."

Masferrer said the pope was "very hard with bishops because they are generals of defeat."

Andrew Chesnut, religious expert at Virginia Commonwealth University, who was in Mexico during the pope's visit, said there was "more of an opportunity for political than ecclesiastic change" in the country.

"The great majority of bishops were not appointed by Francis and many don't share his vision of the church, so I'm less sanguine about the church becoming the Church of the Poor that Francis desires," he said.

"I also doubt that his trip will reverse long-term Catholic decline, which is part of over-arching pluralization of the Mexican and Latin American religious landscape."
Source: AFP