AMLO, one of the few presidents of Mexico not to receive a 'blessing' from the Pope

During his morning conference, the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador assured that he contemplates the visit to Mexico of the Pope Francisco; Even the invitation has already been made, however, AMLO does not know if the priest will set foot on Mexican lands again, as he did in 2016.

“I already invited Pope Francis to come to Mexicoor, with the head of state of the Vatican. […] will always be welcome. I admire and respect him, and personally I consider him the most important politician in the world todayregardless of being the religious leader of Catholicism,” he confessed.

There are still two years left of the six-year term of López Obrador and, without the visit of the Supreme Pontiff, could be one of the few presidents of Mexico not to receive the blessing of a popea tradition that began in 1974 and continued until Enrique Pena Nietonot counting the six-year term of Miguel de la Madridwho also did not get a visit from the Vatican.

IT MAY INTEREST YOU: Pope Francis confirms that the health of Benedict XVI worsened

The Morenista president reiterated that Pope Francis was “taking care of himself, and he is doing well”; throughout this year, rumors of resignation of the pontiff increased, as well as the seriousness of his state of health, which could prevent his visit to the country.

THE PRESIDENTS OF MEXICO AND THE POPE

The first to start this “tradition” was the Luis Echeverria Alvarezwhen he visited the Vatican in February 1974. His purpose was to thank Paul VI their support for the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States.

$!First contact between the Vatican, its pontiff and a Mexican president.

Immediately, in January 1979, the president Jose Lopez Portillo personally received the pope John Paul IIat the Mexico City airport, as well as at Los Pinos, the official residence of the presidency, where he asked the priest to officiate a mass.

The petition caused controversy during its time, and left the former president with endless accusations about his “whim.” The historian Bernardo Barranco pointed out that “The very special communion between John Paul II and the Mexicans shook the political system” from the country.

It should be noted that, before 1992, it was forbidden to walk through the streets of Mexico wearing religious habits, as well as to carry out public demonstrations of faith, however, after the reforms of article 130 of the Constitutionas well as the Law of Religious Associations and Public Worshipthe legal personality of religious groups was recognized.

$!López Portillo's decisions during John Paul II's visit, was one of the moments that gave rise to his Secretary of the Interior, Jesús Reyes Heroles, to resign his position in the middle of the year.

For the second and then a third time, the John Paul II returned to Mexico, but in May 1990, when he visited Carlos Salinas de Gortari after receiving an invitation from you. A year later, Salinas visited the Vatican and, during that stay, the former president took the opportunity to ask the pontiff to declare the excommunications against Miguel Hidalgo Y Jose Maria Morelos.

Then, the Vatican reviewed the file of Manuel Abad and Queipo, Bishop of Michoacán who carried out the process, and concluded that Abad was born out of wedlock, denying him his rights to practice the bishopric. A) Yes, the excommunications were without effect.

Then, in 1993, John Paul II returned to the country and was received by Salinas, where he addressed him as “Your Holiness”for the first time since their previous encounters.

IT MAY INTEREST YOU: Resignation of the Pope and III World War, Nostradamus’s predictions for 2023

$!Laws that monitored religious worship in Mexico became obsolete, according to historians, with the arrival of Pope John Paul II.

A few more years, in 1999, the pontiff returned to Mexico, this time at the invitation of Ernesto Zedillo; this meeting was the first official reception to a pope, after the reforms of article 130 of the Constitution.

Juan Pablo II was received at the airport, accommodated in Los Pinos in his capacity as Head of State, and gratefully fired on January 26.

$!Without controversy or accusations, Ernesto Zedillo received Pope John Paul II.

The last visit of John Paul II to Mexico It was in 2003, when vincent fox received him at the capital’s airport and, without thinking about it, he knelt in front of the blessed and kissed his papal ring.

The ovation caused the panista to be singled out by various critics; vast majority, he scolded that it had been an act of “submission”, and erased the line of secularism in the country’s politics. However, the then Secretary of the Interior, Santiago Creel Mirandareiterated that Fox had made “use of his religious freedom.”

In April 2005, Fox attended John Paul II’s funeral.

$!Controversial meeting between former President Vicente Fox and Pope John Paul II.

It was not until 2012 when a pontiff visited the country, in this case, it was the turn of the Pope Benedict XVIwho officiated a mass on March 25 of that year, in Guanajuato, and converted Felipe Calderon Hinojosa the first president to receive Communion in public.

Years before, in 2007, the pontiff and Calderón met in the Vaticanwhere the former president had invited him to visit the country.

IT MAY INTEREST YOU: ‘May charity be reborn’, Pope Francis asks in his Christmas message

$!Benedict XVI was personally invited to visit Mexico, this time during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón.

Finally, the current Pope Francisco arrived in Mexico on February 13, 2016, during the six-year term of Enrique Pena Nietoand was received at the National Palace, two historical events for the country, as it was the blessed’s first visit, as well as the only time that a Supreme Pontiff was received at the venue.

“This is the Mexico that welcomes you with open arms and hearts. We are a community that values family; a solidarity society; and a Nation forged in the culture of effort. Your Holiness: welcome to this earth. Mexico embraces you with affectionPena Nieto said.