Bishop Ruiz Anniv. celebrations begin Fri, 4 Feb 2000 07:57:06 -0500 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - "PRENSA NUEVO AMANECER" ***PLEASE DISTRIBUTE CITING SOURCE**** Two articles on the beginning of celebrations marking the 40th Anniversary of the naming of Samuel Ruiz Garcia as Bishop of the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas from the Mexican Daily La Jornada, January 22, 2000 translated by Duane Ediger San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico -- Three flights that transported specially invited guests to attend the celebration of forty years of pastoral work in Chiapas of the Bishop of this locality, Samuel Ruiz Garcia, arrived today at the new local airport, and since their arrival, the visitors have been carefully watched and harassed by State and Federal police as well as Immigration agents. A large number of representatives of non-governmental and church organizations -- some 500 delegates from the United States, Europe, Central and South America and Mexico are expected -- have arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas principally by air, but also by land. The airline flying direct from Mexico City to San Cristobal has tripled its service in the last few days in order to transport the hundreds of people requesting the service in order to be present for the festivities marking the 40th anniversary since Bishop Ruiz Garcia first set foot on Chiapan territory, and to witness the final massive religious act over which the Prelate of the Cathedral of Peace will preside. The NGOs denounced today that since their arrival to the Heart of Mary Airport they have suffered under constant harassment from immigration agents and police officers. The grounds of the Seminary of this colonial city are under surveillance by officers of the Interior Department who, with video cameras in hand, are filming and photographing every one of the guests, whether national or international. In San Cristobal de las Casas, various hotels have been booked solid with foreign and Mexican visitors. The Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas estimates that more than 10,000 Indigenous Catholics will attend the celebrations in honor of Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, one of the most polemical prelates of the Mexican Church, the target of immeasurable attacks for his work in favor of the poor and of defamatory campaigns which have come to physical aggression. Called Tatic (father) by the Indigenous, and the "Bishop of the Devil" by Ladinos who oppose his pastoral work, last November 14 marked forty years since Ruiz Garcia was named by Pope John XXIII as Bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas, an historic record for leading the diocese with the highest number of indigenous Catholics. Samuel Ruiz Garcia was the first bishop consecrated in Chiapan territory. According to his biographers, his ascension to the government of the Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas meant for him the discovery of the indigenous world, which surprised him not only by the number of its faithful under his pastoral responsibility, but also in its exclusion from historical and social progress. La Jornada, January 22, 2000 Awaiting the naming by Pope John Paul II of a successor, Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia declared that the Diocese, in its different structures, agencies and representations, is in charge of its pastoral direction. "It is not those who will come from whatever other latitude on whom rests the responsibility for our process, but it is we ourselves, those called of the Lord, who must respond, for we are witnesses and we have been touched by the greatnesses of the Lord amid everything that has happened, even in the most difficult experiences, through which his presence has been more splendidly manifested," the prelate asserted. During a Mass concelebrated with Raul Vera to initiate the activities marking the 40th anniversary of his consecration as Bishop – which will fall on January 25 – Ruiz reiterated that the pastoral process in this diocese is neither local nor pastoral, but ecclesiastical. Before hundreds of Catholics congregated in the Cathedral of San Cristobal, Samuel Ruiz stated that "what is said in the gospel in regard to the yoke being easy and the burden light evidently is not an exaggeration, but the concrete expression of what we have felt and experienced. For it is the walking together which allows one to feel and experience rest. Just as when there is a very heavy object that needs to be moved, and a person thinks it impossible, but then a number of people come and they lift it as if it were a feather: so has our Diocesan walk been for us. The burden is light." Vera assured those present that in spite of his being transferred to the Diocese of Saltillo, his roots continue there, where he has lived privileged moments. PRENSA NUEVO AMANECER-NUEVO AMANECER PRESS-N.A.P. PARA CONOCERNOS, VISITE NUESTRA PAGINA DE WEB: http://www.nap.cuhm.mx/nap0.htm DIRECTOR GENERAL: ROGER MALDONADO-MEXICO Coordinacion: Susana Saravia (antes Anibarro) Director NAP-Europa: Darrin Wood Director de Comunicacion Alternativa NAP Mexico-USA: Rodrigo Bengochea-Mexico. 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