AMERICA / MEXICO - John Paul II an admirer of mango

Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) - Mango, tropical fruit that grows in Latin America, was without doubt one of the favourite fruit of Pope John Paul II, who tasted it for the first time during his trip to Mexico. Considering how much he liked it, in each of his following pastoral visits, those in charge of hospitality always prepared for the Pope fresh and different dishes using this fruit. Fr. Daniel Villalobos, who was one of the people closest to Cardinal Corripio Ahumada, Archbishop Primate of Mexico, witnessed not only how much the Holy Father John Paul II enjoyed this tropical fruit, but the concern of the Archbishop, who periodically sent to Rome, some boxes of "mangos" so there were always some on the Pope`s table
"Even when the Holy Father was already very sick - Fr. Villalobos said in a statement sent to Fides by the Archdiocese of Mexico on the occasion of the forthcoming beatification of John Paul II - Cardinal Corripio, through a friend, sent him mangos. To check that His Holiness had received them, he asked the present Cardinal Leonardo Sandri for information, who had been nuncio in Mexico, and at that time was Deputy Secretary of State. "In Mexico there are some popular sayings that connect Pope John Paul II with two states of Mexico: Oaxaca and Veracruz, and the mangos produced in their own land were sent to the Pope at the Vatican. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 28/04/2011)