Cardinal Rivera urges Mexicans to focus on Holy Week, not on elections

Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 10, 2006 / 22:00 pm

The archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, has called on Mexicans to set aside the issue of the upcoming presidential elections and focus instead on Holy Week in order to mediate on the mysteries of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

“This is not the time to think about the elections, as there will be other times to think about the vote.  This time is for meditating on the message of Jesus,” he said during the celebration of Palm Sunday Mass.

In recalling that the priority of the Church is to evangelize, Cardinal Rivera noted that history has not yet finished, as Jesus’ trial continues today as he suffers when we give in to sin or when the we make the shouts of the multitudes our own: “We don’t want this one, give us Barrabas.  Crucify him!”

While “the physical passion of Jesus continues in the physical ailments that human beings sufferer such as hunger and illness, his spiritual passion is caused by the moral sufferings he had to endure,” the cardinal added.

In this sense, he continued, “our passion comes from religious indifference, scorn for the moral laws under the name of progressivism, manipulation of religion for perverse ends and from theoretical and practical atheism which rejects God from public life.”

“Affective compassion towards suffering members is not enough,” the cardinal warned.  “We need to effectively alleviate their sufferings instead of increasing them.  Thus the reading of the passion will not be a mere recollection but a source of personal and communal Christian renewal,” he said in conclusion.