MEXICAN CARDINAL ACCOMPANIES POPE IN PILGRIMAGE TO HOLY LAND

Mexico City, 22 (NE) Cardinal Norberto Rivera, Archbishop of Mexico expressed his enthusiasm about accompanying Pope John Paul II during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This trip has great meaning, he stated, because it is "two thousand years since Christ was there, since the Son of God was born in this place; the Word of God was made flesh in Nazareth." During a ceremony held last weekend, the Mexican Cardinal also stated that "to accompany the Successor of Peter to the place where two thousand years ago the Lord said to the first Pope: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will edify my Church, is very moving." Cardinal Rivera departed to Jordan after making these declarations. He also spoke about the recent collective suicide in Uganda. He stated that "more than religious practices, [these are] deviations of religiosity… They are deviations of the religious practices, for when religion takes this fatal direction the essence of the union with God is lost, essence that is always in favor of life and respect for the dignity of the human person."