Affections run deep among faithful.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

Ana Leticia Cabrera entered the convent the same month - January 1979 - that Pope John Paul II made his first visit to her native Mexico. He came back four more times, always to throngs of adoring crowds.

"Mexico opened its arms and gave him a big hug, and the pope hugged Mexico back," said Cabrera, a nun for 15 years who now lives in Eugene. "He brought hope to the country, especially to the poor people. Every time he left, he said, `I am leaving but I am here: You are not alone. I am here with you.' '

With dozens of other Spanish-speaking faithful, Cabrera will attend a bilingual memorial Mass for the pope tonight at St. Mary Catholic Church in downtown Eugene. The emotions and depth of affection are likely to run deep.

While his loss is felt by Catholics around the world, the pope cultivated a special bond with many believers in the Catholic-dominated countries in Central and South America. About half the world's 1 billion Catholics live in Latin America; in Mexico alone, nearly 90 percent of the country's 100 million people are Catholic.

Losing the pope is almost like losing a family member, and has been especially hard for some local Latinos unable to be with relatives south of the border.

"Mexico has a culture where we're all blood, we're all united," said Antonio Gutierrez, a steel supervisor taking a break at a Springfield construction site Tuesday. "When something like this happens, people get together. It's a big difference because we're all Catholic and all part of the same family."

Gutierrez, 25, leads a Spanish-speaking young adult group at St. Mary. For most of them, John Paul, who served 26 years, is literally the only pope they've ever known.

Gutierrez said he especially appreciated the pope's passion. "He cared so much for people - you could just see it," he said. "He traveled to countries and spoke their language, just like Paul did in the Bible."

Oguilvia Skelton, 60, is old enough to remember John Paul's election. She recalled how she and friends initially were excited to learn than a non-Italian had been named pope. Then came the reports of how John Paul had lost his mother at an early age and witnessed the horrors of war in his native Poland.

"When we heard about his very tragic life, somehow we just loved him from that very moment," said Skelton, a family caseworker at the Centro LatinoAmericano agency in Eugene.

Skelton said nobody worked in her native Peru this week because of mourning for the pope. It feels different here, she said, where most people have gone about their daily business. "We lose track of our faith sometimes because we all work too hard," she said.

The Rev. Roy Antunez, parish priest at St. Alice Catholic Church in Springfield, said Latinos were drawn to the pope by his "charisma of holiness" and clear affection for them.

"He identified with the poor and the oppressed and those being exploited in different ways, and the fact that he spoke Spanish certainly helped," said Antunez, who estimates that perhaps 20 percent of his congregation speaks Spanish. "Other popes stayed in the Vatican, more or less; he made a big impression by going around."

Cabrera, who came to the United States five years ago, said Mexicans appreciated that John Paul was drawn not only to them but also to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Virgin Mary as she is said to have appeared to the Indian peasant Juan Diego in 1531. In each of his visits to Mexico City, the pope visited the Basilica of Guadalupe shrine there.

"For all of Mexico, the Lady of Guadalupe is really important to us, and he felt a calling by her, to be a missionary all over the world," Cabrera said.

The Rev. Ted Prentice, assistant priest at St. Mary, said it's hard to overstate the importance of the pope's embrace of Our Lady of Guadalupe - "probably the greatest symbol to Mexicans of their unity as a people." The brown-skinned Virgin Mary's message, that Mexico's poor should not be treated as slaves or second-class citizens, was reaffirmed by John Paul, Prentice said.

The pope's visits to Mexico, Prentice said, produced a powerful force "uniting national pride with spiritual pride."

Many Latinos now speculate excitedly that the bishops in Rome might choose a Latino to succeed Pope John Paul. But even if they don't, the mold has been cast, Prentice said.

"No matter who is elected, the new pope will have to recognize Latin America as an equal partner," he said. "John Paul did so much, changed attitudes so much, that they're not going to go back. You don't undo all the things he has done."

LOCAL SERVICES

St. Mary Catholic Church: 7:30 p.m. today

St. Jude Catholic Church: 7:30 p.m. Thursday

Marist High School: 9:17 a.m. Thursday

CAPTION(S):

Kneeling before a photograph of Pope John Paul II at St. Alice Catholic Church in Springfield (on the right, left to right), Ferdinando Montes, Samantha Lee, 5, and her mother, Maricela Ochoa, pray at the conclusion of a memorial Mass on Tuesday. The Rev. Roy Antunez leads a memorial Mass for John Paul II at St. Alice Catholic Church in Springfield on Tuesday. Chris Pietsch / The Register-Guard P o p e J o h n P a u l I I