VATICAN - Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples Card. Crescenzio Sepe on pastoral visit to the diocese of Tarahumara the only territory in Mexico still under the care of the missionary Congregation.

Monday, 7 March 2005

Vatican City (Fides Service) - Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples will be in Mexico 8-10 March for a pastoral visit. On Tuesday 8 March he will preside Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. He will then have a meeting with the Bishop members of the Bishops’ Conference Commission for Missions and the national director and diocesan directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies. On Wednesday 9 March the Cardinal will go to Tarahumara diocese where, at the Cathedral, he will have a meeting with the diocesan clergy and later preside Mass for the ordination of the new Bishop Rafael Sandoval Sandoval, a Missionary of the Nativity of Mary, appointed Bishop of Tarahumara on 4 January 2005 by Pope John Paul II. On Thursday 10 March the Cardinal will visit the General House of the Missionaries of Guadalupe for a meeting with the superior majors of all the religious and missionary institutes in Mexico.
The diocese of Tarahumara, because of its specific pastoral physiognomy is the only territory in Mexico still under the care of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples. The area was evangelised by the Jesuits in 1600, first lower and then upper Tarahumara. After the Jesuits were expelled from Mexico (1767), Franciscans came and the Giuseppini Missionaries (1894) and the Jesuits returned (1900), until the zone of Tarahumara was made a Mission sui iuris in 1950, Vicariate Apostolic in1958, and diocese in 1994.
The diocese of Tarahumara is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Chihuahua. It lies in the south west of the state of Chihuahua, in the north western heart of the Sierra Madre, with an area of 31,353,91 sq km and a population of 280,806 65% mixed race and 35% Indios (Odame, Tarmur, Raramuri, Raromari and Guarojio). According to the Catholic Missions Guide 2005, there are 271,300 (96.61%) Catholics, 14 parishes, 14 diocesan priests, 20 religious priests, 106 women religious, 32 brothers and 18 major seminarians. The diocese runs 24 schools and 23 charity and assistance centres.
The area is mountainous territory with varying altitudes from 3,000-4,000 metres above sea level and varying temperatures: very cold in the highlands and warm in the lowlands and it comprises 11 municipal communities. Roads are poor and communications are difficult. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 7/3/2005; righe 33, parole 410)


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