Leo XIV: Sheinbaum invites the pope to Mexico

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum invited Pope Leo XIV to Mexico this Friday. The president spoke with the Pontiff in a phone call on the day tens of thousands of pilgrims marched to the Basilica of Guadalupe from different parts of the country in fervor for the Virgin of Guadalupe. “We agree that beyond the religion each person professes and the secularism of the state, the Virgin of Guadalupe is a symbol of identity and peace for Mexicans,” Sheinbaum said in a brief online statement.

December 12 is one of the major dates in the religious calendar in Mexico. More than 10 million pilgrims pass through the Basilica of Guadalupe each year, according to official figures from the Mexico government, which particularly highlights the dates of December 9 to 12. The Pope, the president said, “sends blessings and greetings to all” those participating in the celebration.

The canonical event comes from afar. It is the anniversary of December 12, 1531, the day the Mexican native Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin fulfilled the instructions of the Virgin in her last apparition. The story goes that the deity miraculously caused some flowers to germinate on the hill of Tepeyac in the middle of winter and instructed the child to bring them to Bishop Zumárraga in the cloak that covered him. When he placed them before the monks, the mantle he wore revealed the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe transmitted to posterity. This Friday, 494 years after this story was born, President Sheinbaum described this day as a “special date for the Mexican people.”

This is not the first conversation Sheinbaum has had with a Pontiff. In mid-February last year, while she was still a presidential candidate in Morena, she met with Pope Francis (2013-2025) at the Vatican. The meeting lasted about an hour in a private office in Santa Marta, and the then-presidential candidate explained that she had “deep admiration” for Francisco’s “humanist thinking.” And he described him as one of the “greatest global leaders and thinkers of recent times”.

Despite the relative discretion that the Pontiff – of American and Peruvian nationality – has maintained since coming to power at the beginning of May this year, he has embraced the capacity for dialogue to confront conflicts. One of the latest examples was last December 2, when he condemned any violent operation by the United States in Venezuela, such as a land invasion. “It is preferable to seek avenues of dialogue, perhaps pressure, even economic pressure, but to seek another avenue of change if that is what the United States decides to do,” Leo XIV declared at the time. The Pope showed signs of following in the wake of his predecessor in his first apostolic exhortation, by title Dilexi you (I Loved You), “On Love of the Poor,” a 28-page reflection on how the weak and marginalized should be at the center of the Church’s mission.