Making history.President Vicente Fox made history in April when he became the first Mexican leader to attend a papal funeral. Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, Polish: Jan Paweł II) born Karol Józef Wojtyła died on April 3 and was buried in Rome on April 8. The pope visited Mexico five times during his 26-year papacy papacy (pā`pəsē), office of the pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church. He is pope by reason of being bishop of Rome and thus, according to Roman Catholic belief, successor in the see of Rome (the Holy See) to its first bishop, St. Peter. and Mexico was among the first countries he visited after he was named pope in 1978. Mexico is the world's second-largest Catholic country in the world (Brazil is No. 1). It had been a staunch secular state A secular state is a state or country that is officially neutral in matters of religion, neither supporting nor opposing any particular religious beliefs or practices. A secular state also treats all its citizens equally regardless of religion, and does not give preferential , featuring some of the strictest anti-religion laws dating to the 1910-17 Revolution, the San Antonio Express-News The San Antonio Express-News is the daily newspaper of San Antonio, Texas. It is ranked as the third-largest daily newspaper in the state of Texas in terms of circulation, and is one of the leading news sources of South Texas, with offices in Austin, Brownsville, Laredo, and reported. The country had no diplomatic relations with the Vatican until 1992. Relations improved significantly under President Fox after he ousted the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2000. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When Pope John Paul II visited Mexico in 2002 to canonize can·on·ize tr.v. can·on·ized, can·on·iz·ing, can·on·iz·es 1. To declare (a deceased person) to be a saint and entitled to be fully honored as such. 2. To include in the biblical canon. 3. Juan Diego--the first indigenous saint of the Americas--Fox became the first Mexican president to attend a papal Mass. Fox also caused controversy when he kissed the pope's ring. Critics said it degraded Mexico's presidency, characterizing it as "one head of state kissing the ring of another head of state," the Express-News reported. |
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