POPE RECALLS MEXICAN MARTYRS BEATIFIED TODAY

VATICAN CITY, NOV 20, 2005 (VIS) - Following the Angelus, Benedict XVI greeted the bishops, priests, religious and laity who participated today in the Jalisco Stadium of Guadalajara, Mexico, in the beatification of thirteen martyrs who were killed during religious persecutions in Mexico last century. Three of the martyrs were priests, and ten were lay people. The ceremony of beatification was presided by Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins C.M.F., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

  The Pope recalled the names of the martyrs: Anacleto Gonzalez Flores and seven companions, Jose Trinidad Rangel, Andres Sola Molist, Leonardo Perez, Dario Acosta Zurita, and the fourteen-year-old boy Jose Sanchez del Rio. "They faced martyrdom in order to defend their Christian faith," he said.

  "On this Solemnity of Christ the King, whom they invoked at the moment of supreme sacrifice," the Holy Father went on, "they are for us a permanent example and a stimulus to bear coherent witness to our own faith in modern society."

  The Pope then recalled that tomorrow, November 21 and the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, marks "pro orantibus" Day, in other words, the day dedicated to religious communities of contemplative life. The Pope expressed gratitude, "in the name of the whole Church, for those people who consecrate their lives to prayer and to the cloister, offering eloquent testimony of the primacy of God and of His Kingdom. Let us remain close to them with our spiritual and material support."

  Addressing French-speaking pilgrims, Benedict XVI indicated that on this Sunday, which is given over to remembering victims of road accidents, he entrusted "to the love of the Lord all those people who have died in road accidents, as well as the many injured and their families." At the same time he invited "all motorists to drive carefully and responsibly so as to combat, together with the authorities, this social evil and reduce the number of victims."
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