Oaxaca, Mexico, Oct 4, 2017 / 23:07 pm
A team of pilgrims representing World Youth Day 2019 offered a message of hope and consolation to Mexicans impacted by a devastating Sept. 7 earthquake.
On Oct. 2, the team visited areas affected by the earthquake with the official World Youth Day Pilgrim Cross and a Marian icon, as a sign of solidarity.
The team is touring Mexico as part of an international pilgrimage promoting the 2019 World Youth Day, to be held in Panama City, Panama. They had been scheduled to stop in Oaxaca, in the south of Mexico, during their tour, but local churches cancelled their visits after the earthquake, due to the extensive damage in that area.
The group decided to "make a visit anyway as a sign of solidarity, as a sign of the presence of Christ through the cross and the Blessed Mother with the icon," Fr. José de la Luz López, national adviser to the Mexican bishops' youth ministry, told CNA.