Mexican Cardinal says only a conversion of the heart can bring about social change

Mexico City, Mexico, Jan 4, 2004 / 22:00 pm

During a Mass celebrated in the Archdiocesan Cathedral, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, Archbishop of Mexico City, said social change in the country will come when people make an effort to be renewed in hope and bring about concrete changes in their personal and community lives.

In his homily the Cardinal said Mexicans are under a cloud of pessimism because of the culture of violence, economic troubles, and frustrated attempts at reform. Nevertheless, he recalled that beginning a new year ought to bring back hope in the love of God.

The Archbishop asked Mexicans to fulfill their commitment to history and to confront today’s problems with the assurance that “God is with us.” With the love of God, he explained, it will be possible to eradicate the culture of death and corruption, and to find a path towards authentic development, social justice, and respect for life.

Cardinal Rivera said that to live in hope implies seeking changes at the personal and community levels. He asked Mexicans not to begin the New Year without the intention of repenting for mistakes, infidelities and incoherencies.

In this sense, he considered it necessary to recognize the errors of the past in order to build up hope and to be capable of facing the temptations of today.

Finally, the Cardinal expressed his hopes that in 2004 “we might be capable of imagining and building the future according to God’s will, of overcoming the tendency to passively await the future, and instead having the courage to face it, with concrete steps of commitment in order to assure a better future and free ourselves of the evils and faults that burden us.”