Pope begins twenty-third apostolic trip under the sign of hope

VATICAN CITY, (VIS) - Benedict XVI today, March 23, began his twenty-third apostolic trip abroad, which is taking him to Mexico and Cuba. The Holy Father departed will start his visit at Leon in the Mexican State of Guanajuato; Leon is the fourth largest city in Mexico and lies at the geographical center of the country.

The Holy Father will remain in Mexico until March 26, during which time he will lodge in the Miraflores College, an educational institution named after a Carthusian monastery in Burgos, Spain, and run by the Sisters Servants of the Blessed Eucharist and of the Mother of God.

On Saturday, the pope will meet Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, then greet and bless children and faithful in Leon's Plaza de la Paz. On Sunday he will preside at Mass in the Parque Bicentenario and, that evening, preside at Vespers in the cathedral of Leon. He is due to depart for Cuba on Monday.

The pope's trip to Mexico and Cuba has four initiatives, including, the bicentenary of the independence of the peoples of Latin America; the Mexicans' enthusiastic desire to welcome the pope; the twentieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Holy See; and the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the image of "Nuestra Senora de la Caridad del Cobre" in Cuba, with its concomitant Holy Year.

"This voyage to the heart of the Americas also has a specific purpose. It will be a journey of hope. Hope for Mexicans, a people with immense resources and potential, but currently afflicted by serious problems which weigh on their present and future, first among them the problem of violence," Father Federico Lombardi S.J., director of the Vatican Press Office, said.

Father Lombardi also that the trip is "hope for Cubans, who feel they are on the threshold of what is potentially a new epoch, in which John Paul II's words on the reciprocal openness of Cuba and the world may be realized in a climate of development, freedom and reconciliation."

Finally, Father Lombardi hope "the hope of all Latin America, where a Church committed to the 'continental mission' launched at the Aparecida Conference, wishes to continue making her inspirational contribution to the progress of the continent, so that human and Christian values may guarantee integral human development, despite the difficulties and dangers of our time."