The call of Pope Leo XIV to the unit arrives at the Catholic Church in Mexico

At his recent hearing with the Presidency Council of the Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM), Pope Leo XIV “insisted that we always remain united as an episcopal conference, that we maintain that unit all the bishops,” said Mons. Ramón Castro Castro, Bishop of Cuernavaca and president of the CEM.

That unit, recalls Mons. Castro Castro that the Pope told them, “it is essential to be able to testify to what we preach.”

The meeting was held on September 18 at the Vatican. Mons. Castro Castro was accompanied by Mons. Héctor Mario Pérez Villarreal, general secretary of the CEM; Mons. Jorge Alberto Cavazos Arizpe, General Treasurer; Mons. Roberto Yenny García, first vocal; and Mons. Rutilo Felipe Pozos Lorenzini, second member of the CEM.

Interviewed by ACI Press, the president of the CEM recalled that the Pontifical Audience had requested it “when Pope Francis was still in life”, after the new Council of Presidency was elected at the PLENARY ASSEMBLY of the CEM in November 2024.

“When everything was already prepared,” said the prelate, Francisco “became ill and God took it.”

Letting a “timely time,” he added, the Mexican bishops requested the audience again, this time with Leo XIV, “because we were interested as a new presidency precisely to meet Pedro’s successor, introduce ourselves and talk about the topics we know we are interested and listen to his opinion also.”

In his meeting, he recalled, the Pope “was very attentive” to what the bishops on the Mexican social, political and ecclesial reality shared, including the global pastoral project 2031-2033, the work of the Church in the peace dialogues and the ninth intercontinental Guadalupana.

The call to the unity of the Pope, which the Council of Presidency has transmitted to the entire Mexican Episcopate, “we have received it with joy, with pleasure and gratitude. And of course those words are echoing in our hearts and also in the practical reality and in the life of each day.”

“Of course we pay attention and, although we are a united episcopate, this invitation reinforces us in that unity path,” he said.

Journey of Pope Leo XIV to Mexico?

Asked whether the Holy Father slid any clue on an eventual trip to Mexico, Mons. Castro Castro said that the bishops addressed the issue at the audience, “but there is no answer.”

“The Holy Father has such a reflective personality, he likes to think things a lot, so no, there is no answer,” he continued. “We have no security, but there is an interest,” he added.

The president of the CEM said that the bishops “begged him that by 2031, in the 500 years of the appearance of Guadalupe, he could consider” travel to Mexico. “We ask it with all the soul, and if you can even better.”

“And he says (that) he will think about it, he has to organize well, there are some visits that are urgent and what he will do. Then then he will answer us,” he said.

“The country is deteriorating”

Mons. Ramón Castro Castro also addressed the situation of violence that Mexico is experiencing. Remembering the recent march for the peace made in the town of Cuautla, in the Diocese of Cuernavaca, the bishop said that “we cannot deny the efforts at the federal level and state level that are being done to combat this reality so raw and difficult for violence and organized crime.”

“We recognize it, we are not ungrateful nor are we blind. However, we have said and we confirm that we need to do a lot.”

The prelate pointed out that in Mexico “education is deteriorating, democracy is deteriorating, the family is deteriorating, the hope of the people is deteriorating, this reality of peace is deteriorating.”

“Our people are hurt, obviously. Our people suffer in thousands of families, and that suffering cannot be something that does not also cause us an echo as shepherds, in the heart of the shepherds,” he said.

“The suffering of seeking mothers, the suffering of people who have a viacrucis when they dare to denounce, knowing everything that will come behind. We are so concerned and it hurts, in that sense, corruption and impunity, which also affects that spirituality of the people, which is preferred to do nothing and that the black figure is increased”, the data of crimes that are not officially recorded by the authorities.

“Prophets of hope”

However, said Mons. Castro Castro, given that reality “we are shepherds and we are prophets of hope, and we are those who in addition to analyzing reality must inject that hope, and that hope, thanks to the resurrection of Christ, finds an extraordinary foundation.”

“The resurrection of Christ has completely defeated evil, but this war that has been won has battles that can be lost, as we know and we have heard it,” he said.

“I feel that at this time, in the world, in Mexico, in so many of these dioceses, they look like lost battles, and that is where we have to inject the mood and hope to our people, saying: evil cannot prevail forever, evil does not have the last word, but we have to unite and we have to demonstrate that we are more who love peace, justice.”

The president of the CEM stressed that thanks to its structure – through diocese, parishes and chapels – the Church can have “a very deep contact with reality: the parish priests who are in such dangerous and difficult situations that some small communities have to visit in the hands of organized crime, which have to ask permission to cross their territory, that highlights what our population is suffering and those people who are unfortunately the poorest. suffer. ”