In the Mass opening its 87th Plenary Assembly, the Bishops’ Conference of Mexico  consecrated the nation to the Holy Spirit and prayed that the Spirit would help the country to “rebuild and strengthen the social fabric.”
 
Leading the more than 120 bishops gathered for the meeting, conference president Archbishop Carlos Aguiar Retes said, “The presence of evil in the history of humanity has always been repetitive and cyclical, enveloped in tragedy and drama, in struggle and ambition, over and over again the law of the survival of the fittest is imposed and the dignity of the human person is easily trampled underfoot.”
 
The archbishop called the meeting of the bishops “historic” and an effort to survive the violence which has overtaken the country.  “The Bishops are convinced that the Catholic Church in Mexico must intensify her positive presence in society in order rebuild and strengthen the social fabric (…). We are aware that such a task is only possible through the gift of the Holy Spirit,” he said.
 
The Archdiocese of Mexico City reported that Archbishop Aguiar has set Pentecost Sunday, May 31, as the day on which each diocese in the country will consecrate its own particular Church to the Holy Spirit, as was done in 1925 amidst the difficulties and persecution of the Cristeros War.