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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2005 
Mexico City's Rivera is Outspoken and Blunt
 Morgan Lee - Associated Press
| | The Dalai Lama (C) greets children as Mexico's cardinal Norberto Rivera (R) looks on during a prayer session for peace at Mexico City Cathedral, October 4, 2004. (Photo: Reuters) |
Mexico City – Cardinal Norberto Rivera has ministered for 10 years to this sprawling city at the heart of a predominantly Roman Catholic nation, toeing the line on church doctrine while taking more progressive stances on social issues.
The archbishop, 62, appointed by Pope John Paul II, opposes abortion and artificial contraception while speaking out against globalization, official corruption and election fraud.
The church has become more openly involved and aggressive in socioeconomic and political issues during his tenure - thanks in part to a change of government policy, which until 1992 banned church-run schools and public religious processions.
"He very clearly believes that government's policy has been inadequate to improving the standard of living of the ordinary faithful," said Roderic Ai Camp, a religion expert at Claremont McKenna College. "Implicitly, he's been critical of economic globalization."
As Mexico's foremost cardinal, Rivera is given an outside chance of becoming the next pope if the conclave of cardinals opts for a Latin American, although prelates from Brazil and Honduras are considered stronger contenders.
Rivera has maintained a high profile in Mexico's news media, officiating at celebrity weddings and commenting on current affairs during and after Mass at his cathedral.
He recently weighed in on the debate over MayorAndres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who hopes to run for president in 2006, declaring that "there is no room (in Mexico) for a populist government."
In addition to Spanish, he speaks Latin and Italian as well as some English.
However, he may not have enough of the charisma his colleagues may be looking for to succeed John Paul, said the Rev. Manuel Olimon, a professor of religious history at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.
"Something that is very important is the personal charm," Olimon said. "His manner is not very agreeable or pleasant. And you could say he is not flexible in his speech, but abrupt."
The cardinal has sided with Rome on the most controversial questions. He made headlines by roundly condemning birth control at a time when Mexico's population was growing at 2 percent a year - a high rate.
In 1985, as bishop of Tehuacan in Puebla state, he irked many clergymen by refusing to rethink sermons that preached an inflexible theological line at a time when the "new church" and its liberation theology were in vogue.
But his views won him the favor of church officials in Rome, and he was named Mexico City's archbishop by John Paul II in 1995.
Since his arrival in the capital district, home to 20 million people, Rivera has worked to cultivate closer relations with Jews and Muslims in a country where about 90 percent of the population is at least nominally Catholic.
Working in Mexico City, Rivera has been somewhat removed from the fast-growing Protestant evangelical movement in the countryside - and from the Catholic Church's controversial decision to suspend training of Indian lay deacons, despite an apparent shortage of priests.
He has sharply criticized Mexico's drug cartels and government corruption and complicity in the drug trade but also rejected U.S. criticism, saying the drug trade has not been stamped out north of the border, either.
He has also championed debt relief for poor countries and urged the United States to allow free migration of workers as it seeks open markets for exports in the region. |
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