Catholic Bishop Samuel Ruiz, internationally recognized for defending the rights of the poor in the Mexican state of Chiapas, spoke to a large audience at the Institute of the Americas on Oct. 28 as part of a lecture series sponsored by the Burke Lectureship in Religion and Society.
Guardian
The retired bishop, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times and was awarded the Martin Ennals Award, is best known for his role in defending the culture of Chiapas against Mexico’s government and military. He spoke in Spanish, and his speech was translated into English by a professor from California State University San Marcos.
Ruiz became well-known after the Zapatista rebellion of 1994, in which the bishop was called upon to act as a mediator between the government and the rebellious faction in Chiapas. Ever since, he has had to work under constant threats from those in Mexico who would prefer the status quo in Chiapas.
Ruiz elicited laughter from the crowd when he explained how he had become bishop of Chiapas in 1960. Ruiz was born and grew up in Mexico, but was living and working as a bishop in Rome at the time.
“”I felt as if I had been struck on the head and remained mute,”” Ruiz said. “”The first thing I had to do was to get a geography book and figure out where Chiapas was.””
Knowing little about the region and its people, Ruiz said he was at first very conservative in his role as the head of the diocese of San Crist obal de las Casas, the city at the heart of Chiapas.
“”I thought we needed to teach everybody Spanish in order to evangelize,”” said Ruiz of the many indigenous populations in Chiapas. “”Then an Indian brother told me, ‘Why don’t you learn my language a little bit, like I learn your language a little bit, and maybe we can meet in the middle.’ I saw he was right.””
Ruiz explained that the process by which he came to see the injustice of the situation of the local people, who were forbidden to walk on the sidewalks until the 1970s. Overcoming the struggle, he said, was a lengthy and gradual one.
“”My eyes were open, but I was not seeing the Chiapas’ reality,”” Ruiz said.
Ruiz went on to explain that, with the help of dialogues held by the Roman Catholic Church addressing the question of how to approach differing cultures, he started to reconceptualize his mission in Chiapas and to envision a multicultural church.
“”After this Vatican dialogue, we were trying to prepare to have this dialogue [with the indigenous populations] that had not happened for 500 years,”” Ruiz said. “”We are finding the Gospel within each of these cultures.””
He also said that at that point, he saw the need for the indigenous people of Chiapas to take an active part in the organization of a new diocese that was being created in the region. Indigenous representatives were elected by their communities to participate in this effort.
“”The church must be not only directed to the poor, and for the poor, but be of the poor,”” Ruiz said. “”The results that were reached were the products of all participants, but clearly, there’s still a very long way ahead of us.””
Ruiz insisted on the importance today of an international, interreligious dialogue.
“”Especially in the wake of the act upon the Twin Towers, we need this interreligious dialogue,”” he said.
Responding to a question from the audience as to who he believed would be the next pope and what challenges the chosen pope would face in Latin America, Ruiz said that it seemed likely that the next pope would be Italian.
“”But we would really seek a pope who would represent what the future would hold, like an African-American pope or a Latin-American pope,”” Ruiz said. “”The [current] pope leaves an interesting challenge for [the future pope]: how to stay close to Rome and at the same time carry out this kind of missionary work.””
The Burke lecture, which was free and open to the public, was co-sponsored by the UCSD Center for the Humanities, dean of the Division of Arts & Humanities, Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, the departments of literature and history, the Wesley Foundation and the Western Dominican Province.
