|
News Items:
|
|
Headlines
|
|
News Briefs
|
|
Stories
|
|
Movies
|
|
Word To Life
|
|
More News:
|
|
Vatican
|
|
Africa
|
|
Special Sections:
|
|
2006 in review
|
|
Inside the Curia
|
|
Archives:
|
|
Vatican II at 40
|
|
John Paul II
|
|
Other Items:
|
|
Client Area
|
|
Links
|
|
Origins
|
|
.
|
|
Did You Know...
|
The whole CNS
public Web site
headlines, briefs
stories, etc,
represents less
than one percent
of the daily news
report.
Get all the news!
If you would like
more information
about the
Catholic News
Service daily
news report,
please contact
CNS at one of
the following:
cns@
catholicnews.com
or
(202) 541-3250
|
|
.
|
|
Copyright:
|
This material
may not
be published,
broadcast,
rewritten or
otherwise
distributed.
Copyright
(c) 2006
Catholic News
Service/U.S.
Conference of
Catholic Bishops.
|
|
 |
|
CNS Story:
|
CARDINALS-ROBLES Oct-25-2007 (730 words) With photo posted Oct. 18. xxxi
Mexican cardinal-designate known for commitment to the poor
By Ioan Grillo
Catholic News Service
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal-designate Francisco Robles Ortega of Monterrey is known for his commitment to the poor and is expected to be an effective mediator between liberals and conservatives in the Mexican Catholic Church.
The cardinal-designate has focused special attention on poor parishioners in Monterrey, a sprawling industrial city about 100 miles from the border with Texas. After becoming archbishop of Monterrey in 2003, he rotated priests to make sure the most experienced clerics were getting into the disadvantaged neighborhoods as well as preaching at rich parishes in the city center. He also has encouraged an increase in volunteer and charitable work, dispatching missionaries from his archdiocese to poor parts of Mexico and even Central America.
"If we are conscious of the importance of our baptism, that the sacrament does not make us members of a club but disciples of Our Lord Jesus, we will assume our responsibility. We will take his project as our own and become missionaries," the cardinal-designate said earlier this year.
Cardinal-designate Robles, 58, was one of 23 cardinals named by Pope Benedict XVI Oct. 17. He will be elevated to cardinal at a Nov. 24 consistory at the Vatican.
"We have a call to strengthen the faith. We can do this with missionary work and by sharing our spiritual resources," he told reporters as church bells rang throughout Monterrey in celebration after the announcement.
Born March 2, 1949, the third of 16 children, Cardinal-designate Robles saw poverty firsthand in his native Mascota, a small corn-farming community in the mountains of western Mexico. The region is home to many Huichol Indians, who are among the most disadvantaged people in Mexican society.
"Where Cardinal Robles grew up is a world away from the elegance of the colonial cathedrals in Guadalajara and Mexico City. In the western mountains, the church is simple and close to the land and poor farmers," said Father Alexander Zatyrka, a theologian at Mexico's Ibero-American University who studied in a seminary near Mascota.
The region is also home to Talpa de Allende, a sacred site with a small Marian statue believed to have healing powers. Talpa is one of Mexico's most important destinations for pilgrims, who come to pray for cures from disease and for healthy children.
"The pilgrimages and the ambience around the sacred site would have been central in the cardinal's spiritual development," Father Zatyrka said.
After being ordained a priest in Mascota, Cardinal-designate Robles studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
In 1979, he returned to Mexico to serve as a parish priest in Menor de Autlan until 1991, when he was name auxiliary bishop of Toluca. He was named bishop of Toluca in 1996 and represented Mexico at the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for America in 1997.
"Cardinal Robles has always been prudent with his words and actions and avoids controversy. He does not take on the tone of a prophet like some clerics. His sermons focus more on inner spiritual questions than political issues," said Luis Espinosa, head of the theology department at the University of Monterrey, a Catholic institution.
Elio Masferrer of Mexico's National School of Anthropology and History said that Cardinal-designate Robles' appointment is an attempt to bring more balance to the Mexican church hierarchy.
"A cardinal who is closer to the poor was sorely needed, especially when you consider that nearly half of Mexicans live in poverty," Masferrer said. "Cardinal Robles will be in a good position to conciliate between the conservatives in the hierarchy and the liberals or radicals on the fringes of the Mexican church."
The announcement of his appointment came amid a heightened criticism of Mexico's church hierarchy by leftist groups and a continued expansion of evangelical Protestantism in poor Mexican communities.
The cardinal-designate said he learned his humility and spiritual values from his mother and father, now 80 and 90 years old, respectively. His parents demonstrated this humility when he told them he had been elevated to cardinal, he recounted.
"I gave them the news and they were serene. Of course they were emotional, because it was a special grace, but they also know it is a responsibility and they immediately took refuge in prayer," Cardinal-designate Robles said. "They have always lived in faith under the loving look of God. And that is how they taught me to live."
END
Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
|
|
|
|
