The Olé Pope: Benedict Dons a Mexican Sombrero As He Preaches Mass to 30,000

The Telegraph
March 25, 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/9165998/The-Ole-Pope-Benedict-dons-a-Mexican-sombrero-as-he-preaches-Mass-to-30000.html

Pope Benedict XVI wears a traditional Mexican hat while driving through a crowd before officiating mass in Silao

Pope Benedict XVI waves from the Popemobile as he arrives in Guanajuato

More than 300,000 Catholic pilgrims gathered in the central Mexican city of Silao on Sunday to hear Pope Benedict XVI say Mass in the country on his first official visit to Latin America.

Benedict held the ceremony in the city's Bicentennial park in the shadows of the Christ the King statue, a 72-foot monument which recalls the Catholic uprisings of 1926 – 1929.

After landing in the park by helicopter he was presented with a large black sombrero as he greeted fans in his Popemobile before preaching a message of peace in a country reeling from the violence of the drug cartels.

"We ask Christ, to reign in our hearts, making them pure, docile, filled with hope and courageous in humility," Benedict said in his homily.

Despite the enthusiastic reception Benedict received on Sunday, his visit to Mexico has been overshadowed by accusations from victims of sexual abuse who have accused the Vatican of protecting a notorious Mexican priest for years.

Victims of sexual abuse were angry that the pontiff had no plans to meet them after he had met victims of paedophilia on his previous official visits to the US, Germany, Malta, Australia and the UK in 2010.

Benedict did meet a small group of victims of Mexico's alarming drug violence on Saturday after he spoke out strongly against the "evil" of narcotics on his first official visit to the world's second-most populous Catholic country.

Violent clashes between drug cartels and the state have claimed more than 50,000 lives in Mexico in the past five years and President Felipe Calderon invited eight people affected by the turmoil for a private audience with the pope.