SUMMARY:
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THE
POPE BEGINS HIS TWENTY-THIRD APOSTOLIC TRIP UNDER THE SIGN OF HOPE
Vatican
City, 23 March 2012 (VIS) - Benedict XVI today began his twenty-third
apostolic trip abroad, which is taking him to Mexico and Cuba. The
Holy Father departed from Rome's Fiumicino airport at 9.30 a.m. and
is due to land at Leon in the Mexican State of Guanajuato at 4.30
p.m. local time (11.30 p.m. in Rome). Leon is the fourth largest city
in Mexico and lies at the geographical centre of the country.
The
Holy Father will remain in Mexico until 26 March, during which time
he will lodge in the Miraflores College, an educational institution
named after a Carthusian monastery in Burgos, Spain, and run by the
Sisters Servants of the Blessed Eucharist and of the Mother of God.
The Pope's three days in Mexico will be divided as follows: On
Saturday he will meet Federal President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa,
then greet and bless children and faithful in Leon's Plaza de la Paz.
At 10 a.m. on Sunday he will preside at Mass in the Parque
Bicentenario and, that evening, preside at Vespers in the cathedral
of Leon. He is due to depart for Cuba on Monday 26 March.
In
his weekly editorial for "Octavia Dies", Holy See Press
Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. enumerates the reasons for
the Pope's trip to Mexico and Cuba: The bicentenary of the
independence of the peoples of Latin America; the Mexicans'
enthusiastic desire to welcome the Pope; the twentieth anniversary of
diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Holy See, and the four
hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the image of "Nuestra
Senora de la Caridad del Cobre" in Cuba, with its concomitant
Holy Year.
However,
Fr, Lombardi notes, "this voyage to the heart of the Americas
also has a specific purpose. It will be a journey of hope. Hope for
Mexicans, a people with immense resources and potential, but
currently afflicted by serious problems which weigh on their present
and future, first among them the problem of violence".
The
Holy See Press Office Director also speaks of "hope for Cubans,
who feel they are on the threshold of what is potentially a new
epoch, in which John Paul II's words on the reciprocal openness of
Cuba and the world may be realised in a climate of development,
freedom and reconciliation".
Finally,
Fr. Lombardi mentions "the hope of all Latin America, where a
Church committed to the 'continental mission' launched at the
Aparecida Conference, wishes to continue making her inspirational
contribution to the progress of the continent, so that human and
Christian values may guarantee integral human development, despite
the difficulties and dangers of our time".
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