Executive expresses his condolences on the death of Benedict XVI

Arturo Sanchez and Carolina Gomez

Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, January 2, 2023, p. eleven

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed his regret last Saturday over the death of the emeritus pope Benedict XVI. Our condolences to the Catholic Church and to Catholics, as well as to the Vatican, of which he was head of statesaid the president on social media.

We also recognize him as a prominent scholar and prominent theologian. Rest in peacehe added.

In his morning conference on Friday, López Obrador said that he had good memories of Benedict XVI: I have a good experience with him. He came to Mexico, I think it was President Felipe Calderón. So, they invited me, they invited the candidates, it was on the eve of a campaign, and since the conservatives invited him and he had a reputation for being a conservative pope, I was afraid that he would come to speak ill of the leftrecalled the president.

He added that, to his surprise, in the homily led by Benedict XVI in Guanajuato, it was an intervention in favor of the poor and then he (he is also a first-rate theologian, one of the best that the Catholic Church has, the retired pope, Benedict, one of the best, a very prepared man, very well prepared) came with an advanced speech and I was very satisfied, very happy.

On the other hand, the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate, the Primate Archdiocese of Mexico and the Society of Jesus in Mexico mourned the death of the emeritus pope, who abdicated his pontificate in 2013.

Yesterday, at the beginning of the Mass for January 1, Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, Archbishop Primate of Mexico, asked for the eternal rest of Benedict XVI and thanked him for the ministerial service he did for the Church, which faces confronting and difficult challenges.