Vatican City, 25 February 2015 (VIS) –
The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi,
S.J., announced yesterday afternoon that the Secretariat of State has
sent a Note to the Mexican ambassador to the Holy See to clarify that
in using the expression “avoid 'Mexicanisation'”, the Pope did
not in any way intend to offend the Mexican population, for whom he
holds special affection, nor to underestimate the commitment of the
Mexican government in its fight against narcotics trafficking.
As is known, the expression “avoid
'Mexicanisation'” was used by the Pope in an email of a strictly
private and informal nature, in response to an Argentine friend who
is deeply involved in the battle against drug abuse, who had used the
phrase.
The Note demonstrates that evidently
the Pope intended only to emphasise the seriousness of the phenomenon
of the drug trafficking that afflicts Mexico and other countries in
Latin America. It is precisely this importance that has made the
fight against drug trafficking a priority for the government; to
combat violence and restore peace and serenity to Mexican families,
acting on the causes at the root of this scourge.
It is a phenomenon that, like others in
Latin America, that the Pope has drawn attention to on various
occasions, including in his encounters with the bishops, emphasising
the need to adopt policies of cooperation and collaboration at all
levels.