PROCLAIM JESUS CHRIST WITH RENEWED ZEAL

VATICAN CITY, JAN 22, 1999 (VIS) - Following a 13-hour flight from Rome, the Pope arrived this afternoon at Mexico City International Airport. "God willing," he said, "may this visit which begins today encourage all to make a generous effort to proclaim Jesus Christ with renewed zeal before the new millennium which is close at hand."

Having greeted President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce of the United Mexican States, and through him the entire Mexican people, the Pope said that the main aim of his fourth pastoral visit to Mexico is to present tomorrow in the Basilica of Guadalupe, "together with bishops from the whole American continent, the fruit of the Synod held in Rome over a year ago."

"I arrive in a country where the Catholic faith was basis for intermarriage between native Mexicans and Spaniards and which transformed former ethnic and antagonistic plurality into fraternal unity and common destiny. It is therefore not possible to understand Mexico without the faith brought from Spain to these lands."

"I arrive in a country," he added, "whose history encompasses ... three realities ...: the ancient and rich sensitivity of indigenous peoples; ... Christianity rooted in the soul of the Mexican people; and modern rationality, of European influence, which has so wished to extol independence and freedom."

In conclusion, he said; "I will ask Our Lady of Guadalupe, at the end of a fruitful and turbulent century, that the next might be a millennium in which Mexico, America and the whole world have secure paths of fraternity and peace ahead of them."

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