Bishops transfer protects interests of
powerful
By BILL and PATTY
COLEMAN Special to the National Catholic
Reporter Cuernavaca, Mexico
Siding with the poor in Chiapas, Mexico, always demands a heavy
price. But when late last year the wealthy landowners of Chiapas successfully
conspired with the Mexican government and others to have the Vatican remove
Chiapas coadjutor Bishop Raúl Vera López, the local power brokers
had significant historic precedent.
Four centuries earlier, their predecessors, equally wealthy
landowners and powerful military men, forced Chiapas Bishop Bartolomé de
Las Casas to depart for Europe. De Las Casas, the 16th century advocate for the
indigenous people, was, among other things, instructing his priests to withhold
absolution in confession from slaveholders or from Spaniards who refused to
return land or goods they had stolen from the Indians.
Vera López, who was to succeed retiring Bishop Samuel Ruiz
García as bishop of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas -- once
Pope John Paul II formally accepts Ruizs resignation -- was instead named
by the Vatican to the Saltillo diocese in northeastern Mexico.
The Mexican pressure on the Vatican, according to accounts in the
Mexican press, has come from several sources, including visits to Rome by
conservative senior Catholic hierarchs and Mexican government officials, often
speaking sotto voce for Mexican business interests.
In Rome, Mexicans such as Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera
Carrera, Guadalajara Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, and Yucatán
Archbishop Emilio Berlié Belaunzarán and Bishop Onésimo
Cepeda Silva of Ecatepec, known for publicly blessing soldiers weapons,
reportedly all spoke into the receptive ears of Archbishop Girolamo Prigione.
Until his 1998 retirement, Prigione was papal nuncio in Mexico and a major Ruiz
opponent. They also reportedly spoke to Vatican Secretary of State Angelo
Sodano.
In addition, the Mexican governments case against appointing
a successor to Ruiz with the same commitment to indigenous issues was taken to
the Vatican last July by Mexicos Secretary of External Relations
(Secretary of State) Rosario Green.
With coadjutor Vera Lópezs transfer now public, some
of these same hierarchs have come to the Vaticans defense, mainly by
highlighting the earlier armed rebellion of Subcommandante Marcos and the
indigenous protests against oppression -- even though Marcos in recent years
has sought a peaceful solution to the oppression in Chiapas
Mexico Citys Rivera Carerra has said Marcos and others
dont care about the good of the indigenous and only promote a violent
situation because it furthers their own ends. They are ideologues not
patriots. He said the pope would not accept Ruizs resignation and
appoint a replacement until he has time to study the necessities of the
region.
Meanwhile in Morelos province, 21 priests in a joint statement
asked the Holy See to be sure that whoever follows Ruiz carries out the same
policies. And in Cuernavaca, one pastor, Fr. Conrado Ramirez Osorio, objecting
to the coadjutors unprecedented transfer, listed some of the reasons Vera
Lopez was transferred.
It was done, Ramirez Osorio said, because the interests of those
who own the land must be protected; the governing PRI (Partido Revolutionaria
Institutional) party of Chiapas must preserve its power in the region; the
hotel owners must continue to get money from tourists; the autenticos
coletos (right-wing merchants) must preserve their economic power; the
federal government must eliminate quality witnesses, like bishops, priests and
religious so they can militarily defeat the EZLN, the largely Mayan Indian
Zapatista National Liberation army; because worldwide business interests want
to drain the region of its riches (namely oil).
The indigenous people, meanwhile, see the Vera Lopez move as a
Vatican betrayal, the Holy See going back on its words. The terrible
blow, as some describe it, has left the indigenous people frightened
about the future.
The enslaved indigenous people may have felt the same four
centuries ago when, in 1545, De Las Casas returned to Rome. Two years later, he
resigned as bishop. Until Ruiz arrived more than 40 years ago, they had been
without a protector for 400 years. The signals are that, without Vera
López to succeed Ruiz, the indigenous will be without a protector
again.
National Catholic Reporter, January 14,
2000
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