A Vatican envoy tried to reassure disillusioned Mexicans on Sunday that Pope Benedict XVI was not snubbing the deeply Roman Catholic country with his decision not to attend an event here next year. The Vatican says the pope declined an invitation to attend World Family Day in January because Mexico City sits too high above sea level for someone his age — 81.
Mexico City is more than 2,200 meters (7,300 feet) above sea level.
But the pope is sending his top aide, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, to stress the importance he places on the event and his affection for Mexico, said Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, of the Pontifical Council for the Family, who was visiting to help with preparations for the gathering.
"My impression is ... that the pope was disposed to come. But he must listen to the people around him who worry about his health," said Antonelli, speaking through a translator said at a news conference.
Antonelli acknowledged that "the pope's presence would have attracted more people to the event." But he noted that it would draw bishops and cardinals from around the world and that Benedict would give a recorded message.
The Vatican's explanation for the Benedict's absence has left some Mexicans cold, particularly because his predecessor, the globe-trotting Pope John Paul II, was frail and 82 when he last traveled to Mexico City in July 2002.
John Paul had a special bond with Mexico. He chose the country for the first foreign trip of his papacy in 1979 and visited four more times, drawing wildly enthusiastic crowds.
"Pope John Paul was older and still he came to visit. This pope is younger and he's not coming," said Emma Ruiz Estrada, a housewife leaving Mexico City's Metropolitan Cathedral cradling her recently baptized grandson.
"It seems like the affection is not there," she said of Benedict. "There will never be two John Pauls."
With 10 foreign pilgrimages since assuming the papacy in 2005, Benedict has kept pace with the John Paul, who was only 58 when he became pope. But unlike his predecessor, Benedict has traveled little to the developing world. He has instead toured extensively in the West, where he says the church is in "crisis."
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(Source: IHT)