The Mariachi Mass

On July 14, 1957, a 16th-century Franciscan church in the heart of Cuernavaca was consecrated as the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Diocese of Cuernavaca. Church dignitaries came from near and far to celebrate in the newly renovated sanctuary.

Bishop Sergio Méndez Arceo later recounted, “When it was all over I bought all available newspapers to see how the press had covered the consecration. Only then did I realize the coincidence of the date; it was the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. How appropriate! The storming of the Bastille was a liberating experience for the people of France; the renovation of the interior of Cuernavaca’s cathedral is a liberating experience for the people of the Diocese of Cuernavaca. We got rid of the excess clutter and can get down to the basics of what Christian life should be about.”

Ten years later, in 1967, Don Sergio decided that old European organ music was out of cultural context. He ratcheted up the joyous nature of the Mass by inviting mariachi groups to take turns playing in the cathedral. Now commonly referred to as the Mariachi Mass, its proper name is the Panamerican Mass and it started in Cuernavaca. Four of Don Sergio’s successors continued this tradition; the current bishop cancelled the popular weekly event.

Last week I was delighted to learn from Edward Priest, a Massachusetts native with a thick Boston accent, that a few blocks away in Cuernavaca’s Guadalupe church the Mariachi Mass is still celebrated every Sunday at 12:30 p.m. He should know. Ed is a mariachi and plans his trips to Cuernavaca around Sundays. In 2009 he started playing with the mariachis in the Cathedral.

Ed is a middle school French and Spanish teacher in Falmouth, Massachusetts as well as a musician in his own right. For nearly 20 years he has been coming to Cuernavaca every other year to improve his Spanish. His musicianship earned him the friendship and acceptance of many of Cuernavaca’s mariachi musicians.

Last Friday I interviewed Ed in Cuernavaca’s downtown zocálo. Dressed in his black “charro” suit, he was with other members of the Charros de Morelos waiting to be contracted for a party or serenade.

Each time Ed returns to Mexico he brings with him a hardbound book self-published through Shutterfly.com of photos taken on his previous trip. A photo in his current book caught my eye. Ed and some of his friends are at a going-away party being serenaded by a guitarist. The caption read, “Juan gave me the music of my very good friend Joaquin.”

Juan knew Ed really appreciated Joaquín’s guitar-playing and singing skills. The gift was not a CD or recording. Instead, Juan paid Joaquín to play at Ed’s table for an hour. During that hour, Joaquín was not a guest at the table. He was serenading Ed.

This may seem like an unusual relationship to music but is subtlety present in many Mexican venues even in Mexico City’s Plaza Garibaldi, where one goes to find mariachi for a serenade (seven songs) or per-hour for a party.

Mariachis can also be hired to play a single song or several songs in the plaza itself. In that case the audience may be a couple, a family, or a group of friends sitting on a park bench. Sometimes the mariachis are playing to a car and the people inside it. I’ve even had them get on board a tour bus to play Las Mañanitas for travelers celebrating a birthday.

Invariably passersby gather to listen to the music. In most any other country those gathered around would applaud each song. Mexico’s protocol is different those that listen-in just walk away. They’re eavesdropping on someone else’s music. Had they not liked it they wouldn’t have stopped to listen. But it is not ‘their’ music to applaud.

This understanding of “owning” music existed in Mexico long before copyrights became a source of income for musicians from the Internet. In mariachi or trio performances, the owner is the listener, not the singer or even the composer. In an open plaza setting the “one who pays the piper” has temporarily become the owner of space in the most public of places.

Yet in restaurants, where roaming musicians charge patrons per song, the whole restaurant often applauds each song. In this case, the “one who pays the piper” offers the music to those in the restaurant, taking them into account much as he or she would say “buen provecho” to those at another table upon arriving or departing.

Ed Priest now has two charro suits, black and grey. In addition to the Mass he plays parties and gigs with the other mariachis. He summed up the way music has opened doors for him in Mexico, “I feel deeply honored to be included as a mariachi and now play with a Puerto Rican group when I’m home. Music is a universal language that helps bridge cultural differences.”

Courageous heroes

I am humbled by the people I so frequently meet in Mexico who act with grace and courage to make the lives of people around them better. My hero in this matter is Sergio Méndez Arceo, Bishop of Cuernavaca from 1952 to 1982. This past weekend we once again celebrated his deeds with the annual Don Sergio Méndez Arceo National Human Rights forum and awards.

Néstora Salgado García, is the winner of the 2014 individual award. Néstora is a U.S. citizen, born in Mexico. She was critically injured in an automobile accident while visiting Olinalá, Guerrero during a 2002 family visit. Afterward she and her family decided to permanently settle in Olinalá.

Soon Néstora began championing social justice issues. She worked on behalf of women and children against domestic violence. In 2012 she organized volunteer community police to protect against the drug cartels. The Civil Association she led denounced the municipal president for corruption and not supporting the community.

In August 2013 Néstora was arrested and imprisoned in a federal penitentiary. Her award reads “Néstora has been criminalized for organizing the community for its own protection.” It was accepted by her daughter Saira Rodríguez Salgado. Néstora is still imprisoned.

I also met people from the community of Cherán, Michoacán, who won the group prize for defending their forests from illegal logging. That in turn led the people of Cherán to choose to rule their municipality with “usos y costumbres.”

Uses and customs is a legal concept similar to common law. We are seeing “usos y costumbres” adopted more frequently now by indigenous municipalities. It usually involves rejecting civil statute law along with political parties. In November 2011 the Federal Electoral Tribunal ruled in favor of the community, recognizing the demands of Cherán and thereby setting a precedent, recognizing the rights of indigenous people to determine how to elect their own authorities.

The afternoon awards ceremony held in the 16th-century open chapel on the grounds of Cuernavaca’s cathedral was the culmination of a full day of activities. During an earlier forum titled “Human Rights Panorama of Mexico,” Alberto Athié spoke.

Athié is a former Roman Catholic priest, ordained in 1983 at the Basílica of Guadalupe. In 1995 Father Athié served as confessor to Father Juan Manuel Fernández Amenábar, former rector of Mexico’s Legionnaires of Christ Anáhuac University. On his deathbed Fernández Amenábar wrote a letter about how he was abused as a teenager by Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionnaires of Christ.

Before his death he told Father Athié his story and requested, “At my funeral Mass tell the people that I forgive Marcial Maciel but also tell them I ask for justice.” Athié took this very personally and understood it meant a search for truth even at high personal and professional cost. He made a promise. “I will commit myself, Jose Manuel, to search for justice.” Since that time he has tirelessly struggled on behalf of children sexually abused by persons under the authority of the Catholic Church.

Alberto Athié brought with him to the forum a stunning surprise to those assembled. He held in his hand a copy of a long-buried letter recently provided to him along with many other previously unseen documents by a sympathetic Vatican archivist — perhaps the Edward Snowden of Rome. The letter, dated August 1956, was addressed to the Congregation of the Affairs of Religious — the oversight body for the disciplining of priests and nuns. It was a detailed complaint alleging sexual misconduct and drug abuse by Marcial Maciel written by Cuernavaca’s own Bishop Méndez Arceo!

We always knew Don Sergio to be a great champion of human rights but this was new proof of his courage in taking on an unpopular issue. Revealed documents expose that as a result of this letter an investigation was started during which Marcial Maciel was suspended from his positions in his order. The investigation came to an abrupt close with the death of Pope Pius XII. Maciel was able to resume his positions.

It would be 50 years and five popes before a later investigation determined Marcial Maciel had molested numerous seminarians, married, had multiple mistresses, and fathered children. In the meantime the very conservative order he founded grew to include three bishops, 953 priests, 1877 seminarians and countless faithful members. At the time of the exposure of Maciel’s abuses in 2006, the order was very wealthy.

Athié provided many other details of his long ordeal in seeking justice for the victims of Marcial Maciel. Even though forced out of a still-denying church in 2003, he continued his mission, co-authoring the book “The Will To Not Know.” Visibly emotional, he told us he finally felt vindicated by recent United Nations’ findings and Pope Francis’s apology on behalf of the Catholic Church.

Though Alberto Athié did not win the Sergio Méndez Arceo prize, he received a well-deserved honorable mention and gave us the unexpected gift of hearing Don Sergio speaking from beyond the grave.

Sergio Méndez Arceo award

You are invited to a marvelous and festive convergence in Cuernavaca on

Saturday, April 20! Two Tarahumara ‘sacerdotes’ (priests) will descend from the north accompanying Estela Angeles Mondragón. From the southeast will come the heroic and much admired Las Patronas, women whose town, La Patrona, straddles the railroad tracks in coastal and tropical Veracruz. The event is the 21st annual Sergio Mendez Arceo National Human Rights Prize awards ceremony.

Sergio Mendez Arceo was the seventh bishop of Cuernavaca. During a thirty-year tenure (1952 to 1982), Don Sergio was an outspoken advocate for the respect of human rights. He put the Diocese of Cuernavaca on the map in church circles around the world. His Sunday sermons – often bordering on current events talks --covered topics as diverse as the dirty wars of the southern cone of South America, the Central American civil wars, affronts to human rights in the Diocese of Cuernavaca and in Mexico in general. He even talked about the atrocities carried out in the Viet-Nam war and racial discrimination and Indian reservations in the United States.

Beloved by his people, Bishop Mendez Arceo retired at age 75 in 1982 and lived another ten years as bishop emeritus. The Sergio Mendez Arceo prizes have been given out yearly since his death in 1992. Currently it is an award given in two categories -- individual and group.

Estela Angeles Mondragón is to receive the individual award for her work defending the rights of Tarahumara to their land. Neighboring cattle ranchers have invaded land ceded to the Tarahumara as ejido land by presidential decree in 1928. Estela's legal expertise, perseverance, and commitment to the cause of the Raramuri (the name that the Tarahumara prefer to be called) has led to winning 17 of 32 lawsuits filed. Over 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) have been recovered. Fifteen lawsuits are still pending and may result in the return of 12,000 additional hectares.

The Sergio Mendez Arceo group award is going to Las Patronas. This group of women prepares meals for 200 people, day in and day out. Mealtime is not announced with a dinner bell, but rather by the loud train horn blown by the engineer at the controls of La Bestia (The Beast). Las Patronas feed the people riding on top of the northbound freight train as it lumbers through La Patrona, Veracruz. Their guests are unknown to them. The travelers grab from the women's hands plastic bags filled with rice and beans each tied to a bottle of water. The clickety-clack sound of the train wheels on the track is interspersed with shouts of thanks from the men, women, and children on the train.

For the most part the people riding La Bestia are Central Americans on their way north to the Unites States. They hope to slip across the U.S. border as undocumented migrants, in the same way as they entered Mexico from Guatemala or Belize. Not having a visa for travel in Mexico leaves La Bestia as one of the few means of transportation available to them. Their only food is what they carried with them when they jumped aboard or that given to them by Las Patronas or other similar groups along the way.

In thinking about the travelers atop La Bestia we must celebrate the Associated

Press' announcement this month that its Stylebook no longer sanctions the use of the word "illegal" to describe a person; it should "describe only an action."

Each year I look forward to the privilege of being a member of the jury that votes for the Sergio Mendez Arceo Prize winners. The protocol and rules to be followed -- never knowing how the vote will go, yet confident that the jury's choice will be a good one -- is all of an intensity difficult to describe. On the first two votes the winner must win by 50% plus 1. Yes, people talk about it as white smoke and black smoke. Indeed it is the closest I'll ever get to the feeling that must accompany a papal conclave.

Saturday's events will begin with a Human Rights Forum that starts at 10:00 a.m. followed by lunch on site and the awards ceremony at 4:00 p.m. It will all take place in the recently refurbished Centro Cultural Universitario, Avenida Morelos No. 180 in downtown Cuernavaca (the southwest corner of the city block on which the Cuernavaca Cathedral is located). There is no charge for any of the events. If you can't make it to the forum, you will still be welcome at the awards ceremony.

Last year's prize winner, Javier Sicilia, the leader of the Movement for Peace and

Justice with Dignity, will give this years prize to Estela Angeles Mondragón. In addition to that he will be one of several featured speakers in the morning forum titled "Human Rights:  Challenges and Hope." The forum's closing talk will be by Daniel Zapico, Amnesty International's representative in Mexico.

A red shoe chronicle

Upon reaching the age of 75, Cuernavaca's world-renowned bishop Sergio Mendez Arceo presented his resignation to Pope John Paul II in 1982.   He was frequently asked if he didn't object to having to retire while still physically strong and mentally alert. Indeed after his retirement he traveled and spoke extensively on the lecture circuit.  He would always point out that he had voted in favor of a bishops' mandatory retirement age, and abided by it willingly.  I remember him drawing laughter when he told his congregation about his suggestion to "his brother bishops from around the world" gathered in the Second Vatican Council that the pope should have a mandatory retirement age too.  

Don Sergio presented his suggestion as an amendment to Pope Paul VI 's request to the bishops meeting in the Vatican Council that they approve a change in the tradition of lifetime appointments. Pope Paul VI’s requested that bishops offer their resignation "when faced with the increasing burden of age or some other serious reason. . . "  As to be expected, Paul VI's request was approved and Bishop Mendez Arceo's amendment was rejected. 

Pope Paul VI set retirement age for priests at 70, for bishops at 75 and restricted voting for a new pontiff to cardinals under the age of 80.

The bishops stuck with tradition regarding the pope – no retirement age. He serves for life.

Thirty-nine year-old Joseph Ratzinger, later to be Benedict XVI, certainly heard Bishop Mendez Arceo's outlandish words.  Not yet a bishop, Father Ratzinger participated in the Second Vatican Council as a theological consultant.

I remember Don Sergio -- as Bishop Mendez Arceo is known in Cuernavaca -- pointing out that Paul VI did great damage to the Church by staying on beyond when he could handle running an organization as large and important as the Catholic Church.  Don Sergio did not live to see the last years of John Paul II's papacy, but I'm sure he would have had the same to say.

Last Sunday I met with a close collaborator of Don Sergio's, Father Angel Sanchez, with the hope of gleaning further insight into Don Sergio's suggestion.  No luck.  He told me "you'll probably find some of his insights in the letters he wrote from the Vatican Council meetings."  Indeed Father Angel is releasing those letters with comments that put them in perspective on the 50th anniversary of each letter's dateline. He didn't offer to give me a preview.  However Father Angel did tell me "Paul VI either didn't want to retire or the Roman curia wouldn't allow him to do so.  Had he retired at 75 that would have become the norm for popes, as bishops of Rome.  At that time the curia was strong and the pope was weak.  But now the door has been opened to the idea of retirement.  The next pope won't be required to retire, but he will be thinking about it."

Father Angel went on to tell me that the Vatican Council is also referred to as a Synod of Bishops.  Synod, a word with a Greek root, refers to walking together.  The word council has a Latin root referring to convocation or assembly. Father Angel said that bishops prefer the idea that the government of the Catholic church is of bishops working together with the Pope as the Bishop of Rome being the highest ranking bishop.

With that interpretation popes would be subject to mandatory retirement.  

Pope Benedict XVI surprised the world on February 11th with the announcement of his resignation on less than three weeks notice, effective last Thursday, February 28.  Within that short time a church which has not dealt with such an event for 700 years has agreed on a title for him, Emeritus Pope, found him a place to live and, within an institution in which symbolism plays a important role, has even determined what clothing he will wear, all without infringing on his successor-to-be's role as pontiff. 

The Emeritus Pope will still wear white, but he has given up his red shoes.  Vatican spokesman the Reverend Federico Lombardi says that Benedict XVI will replace the popes' signature red shoes with brown shoes made by Mexican craftspeople in Martin Dueñas' shoe factory in Leon, Guanajuato. They were gifted to him last year when he visited Mexico. 

If Don Sergio's words resonate in Benedict XVI's mind, and he's now wearing shoes from Guanajuato, could we say Mexico has him covered from head to toe?

Second Vatican Council

The most visited spot in the state of Morelos is the simple and austere Roman Catholic cathedral in downtown Cuernavaca. Built as a church in the early 1500’s, Franciscan friars served as its amateur architects and its indigenous laborers had never built a Roman arch or a vaulted ceiling. Look carefully and you will see Roman arches lacking keystones and other glaring architectural mistakes. But these don’t take away from its beauty. Wonderful modern stained glass set in 16th century windows. A single nave with glimpses of rescued murals. Monastic construction combined with mid 20th century modern church interior design.

It wasn’t always this way.  It used to be ornately decorated with side altars and images of saints. In 1957 Bishop Sergio Mendez Arceo closed the sanctuary and completely remodeled it.  In his words, "we removed all the deformations that had been added over time.  It was an exemplary historical reconstruction, in which I put in place my ideas as a doctor of church history.  In the resulting interior space we placed modern furnishings that go along with the liturgical renovations that have been adopted by the Church. " The result?  "It shook up public opinion."  

It shook up public opinion so much that Bishop Mendez Arceo had to write a pastoral letter explaining the changes.  Not only had he renovated the building, but he had also removed all images of saints, leaving only Jesus on the cross and Mary looking up at Him.  In his newly remodeled cathedral Don Sergio started celebrating Mass in Spanish instead of Latin and he replaced German organ music with Mariachi musicians playing church music composed in Latin America.  Referred to as the Mariachi Mass, its proper name is the Panamerican Mass.  It continues to be celebrated Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.     

Bishop Mendez Arceo was ahead of his time. While he was renovating his church in Cuernavaca, the newly elected Pope John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council, to begin in October 1962. Ultimately this council would encourage changes to the liturgy similar to the ones Mendez Arceo had already made.

As part of this year's 50th anniversary celebration of the Second Vatican Council, the Don Sergio Mendez Arceo Foundation will publish Don Sergio's thirty-five letters home from the Council on the anniversary of each letter.  Not only will we be treated to an insider's view of the proceedings, but church historian Father Angel Sánchez will preface each letter with historical context of the events the Bishop describes.

According to Fr. Angel, Cuernavaca's bishop was one of the most active participants in the Council, attending all four sessions spanning four years.  Bishop Mendez Arceo was one of only two Latin American bishops who wrote home to their dioceses about the goings-on at the Council.  He sent his letters to the editor of a statewide newspaper, Correo del Sur, not to the diocese.   In doing so he was addressing all the people in the diocese, not only Catholics. 

Pope John XXIII set out to improve dialogue and relations with non-Catholic Christians with the Second Vatican Council.  Six hundred Protestant and Orthodox church leaders participated in the inaugural ceremony on October 11, 1962 in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.   

I felt the effects of this ecumenical resurgence while growing up in Colombia.  My father, a Presbyterian missionary, studied the persecution of Protestants by Catholics throughout Colombia in the late 1940s and 1950s.  He documented hundreds of burnings and bombings along with the closing of Protestant churches, schools, clinics, and orphanages.  It was a dark chapter of Colombian history. All that abruptly came to an end with a photo published on the front page of Colombia’s newspapers. The photo showed Pope John XXIII with his arm around the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

This ecumenical embrace, and the outcome of the Second Vatican Council, not only brought the persecution of Protestants to an end but started a new era of cooperation. My parents, James and Margaret Goff, later found it easier to work with progressive Catholics than with Protestants. They were invited by the Maryknoll Order to run their press service in Lima, Peru. Later they worked in Nicaragua with the Antonio Valdivieso Ecumenical Center, headed by a Dominican priest.

Bishop Mendez Arceo submitted his resignation to Pope John Paul II at the age of 75. He reminded his congregation that he had been a delegate at the Synod of Bishops in Rome where he voted in favor of Paul VI's proposal that bishops retire at age 75.  He also told them he had made a proposal that wasn't approved by his brother bishops -- that popes also resign at age 75. 

On another matter, next Tuesday is celebrated as the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, although it will be observed on Monday.  There are three Charlie's Digs -- posted in November 2010 -- on the topic of the Revolution posted at <charliesdigs.blogspot.com>.

Bishop Sergio Mendez Arceo

Thirty-one years ago April 17 fell on Friday of Holy Week.  Bishop Sergio Mendez Arceo led the Good Friday Mass.  Sitting in a pew in Cuernavaca’s cathedral that day I couldn't foresee the long lasting effect his words would have.

Don Sergio, as he was affectionately known, was comfortable in his setting, a sanctuary he had designed. And he was comfortable with his congregation; he had been their bishop for almost thirty years. 

Though the cathedral building had been completed in 1552, Mendez Arceo led the remodeling of the sanctuary with tasteful mid-twentieth century modernity.  He often said that without "clutter" the church could get down to the basics of what Christian life is all about in a simple and austere cathedral. His thinking was very much in tune with the cathedral’s original Franciscan design.  With changes to the interior, Mendez Arceo transformed the old sanctuary into a liturgically correct cathedral for contemporary needs. 

Likewise he was in tune with contemporary social needs. 

He was a leader in Latin America's contribution to world-wide Christianity, the Theology of Liberation.  It's a theological model based heavily on the books of the Old Testament in which the prophets so frequently tell their kings that what they were doing was evil and offensive to God.  

Mendez Arceo, like other theologians of liberation, believed that it is the role of the Church to speak out on behalf of those whose voice is rarely heard -- especially the poor and the oppressed. 

For his followers and admirers he was a Bishop of the Poor. For his detractors he was the Red Bishop of Cuernavaca. Yet all knew that he always treated liturgy with utmost respect and followed cannon law to the letter. 

Detractors and admirers alike were stunned by what he did thirty-one years ago today at that Good Friday Mass.  Before walking the aisle to the altar area Don Sergio took the microphone, welcomed the congregation, and then told us that he expected the ceremony would last much longer than we had expected -- perhaps three or four hours!  He asked anyone who did not have three or four hours to spend with him to please leave because all exits would soon be closed.  He told us where the restrooms were located but added that going to the restroom was not going to be a way to slip out of the church building.  All access to the outside would be locked.  Some people did get up and leave.

Only after the massive doors were bolted shut did he tell us he was going to carry out an excommunication ceremony.  I'd never been to one before and have never been to one since.  He described the severity of the ceremony, what those to be excommunicated would have to do to return to communion with the Church, and what would befall them if they participated in the sacrament of communion while excommunicated.  

He proceeded to excommunicate anyone who tortured another human being in the Diocese of Cuernavaca, the only area over which he held jurisdiction, whether in a government building, the back set of a police car, or in a family home. He mentioned no names and to me his decree seemed to have no teeth -- but that lasted only a few moments. 

Then he issued a decree that reverberated throughout Mexico and was heard in Christian circles worldwide.  He went on to excommunicate all people in government who knew torturing was occurring, who could stop it, but who chose to do nothing. 

The Don Sergio Mendez Arceo Foundation which carries his name honors similar courage in speaking out against abuses and injustices by giving out two human rights prizes each year close to April 17.  The 2012 awards will be presented this Friday.  This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Don Sergio's death as well as the twentieth awarding of the prize.

The group prize will be awarded to Citizens in Support of Human Rights (CADHAC) of Monterrey which offers effective legal assistance to victims of human rights violations.     

The individual prize will be given to Javier Sicilia for his work since 1980 on behalf of human rights and being a bridge between social classes.   Through poetry, news analysis and theological commentary his voice is heard by sectors of society that normally don't interact with each other. 

Friday’s events will start with a Human Rights Forum in the Federal District's Human Rights Commission headquarters at 9:30 a.m.   The keynote speaker will be The Reverend José Luis César Pérez Guzmán of the Mexican Methodist Church.  The awards themselves will be given out at 4 p.m. at the San Pedro Martir church in Tlalpan, D.F. where Bishop Raul Vera of Saltillo, Coahuila will be one of the speakers.  I will be at both the forum and the awards ceremony and will be glad to translate for those needing it.  I hope to see you there.

Further details are available at <http://www.fundaciondonsergio.org/esp/inicio/inicio.html>.  Round trip transportation from Cuernavaca is available through the Don Sergio Foundation.