Conservative bishop to head Mexico City see

National Catholic Reporter, July 28, 1995 by Bill Coleman, Patty Coleman

CUERNAVACA, Mexico -- The Vatican has named Norberto Rivera Carrera, the conservative bishop of Tehuacan' Puebla, to head the see of Mexico City, a move interpreted by some as a blow to the church's commitment to the poor and a victory for archconservative papal nuncio Girolamo Prigione.

The July 12 appointment of Rivera, 53, as archbishop of Mexico City, the largest diocese in the world, took place as peasant uprisings continued throughout southern Mexico.

"Prigione won. There is no doubt he is an astute diplomat. Now he needs only to remove Samuel Ruiz (Garcia) from his diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas. This will crown his work in our country," said Jesuit Antonio Roqueni, an adviser to Cardinal Ernesto Corripio Ahumada, the retired archbishop of Mexico City.

Roqueni said he expects the 1,800 priests of the archdiocese to adopt "a passive resistance toward the new archbishop."

Armando Lampe, a theologian and expert on the Latin American church who teaches at Mexico's University of Quintana Roo, said Rivera's appointment "reveals the same tendency that has marked John Paul since the beginning, the application of a design made in Rome that he believes is valid everywhere."

Lampe said history "will judge the pontificate of John Paul II severely, for he has treated people as `passive objects,' and tried to destroy the work of bishops like (El Salvador's Oscar) Romero, (Mexico's Sergio) Mendez Arceo, (Brazil's) Helder Camara and Samuel Ruiz, who all believed that people should be `active subjects' in the church." With nominations like Rivera's, he added, "the pope has exterminated a whole generation of prophetic bishops."

Born in Durango and educated there and in Rome, Rivera was a professor of ecclesiology before being named bishop. In 1990, Rivera attracted national attention because of his support for the closing of a seminary, located in the Tehuacan diocese, which he said taught Marxist theology.

"(Rivera) was one of the three bishops who closed the Regional Seminary of the South where we prepared our seminarians. Now all three have been named archbishops and Rivera, the primate of Mexico. A coincidence? No, a reward for their loyalty," said Arturo Lona, bishop of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, in an interview with the progressive Mexican weekly, Proceso.

Church sources in Tehuacan said they believe Rivera, in collusion with the government, prompted the expulsion earlier this year of Fr. Gonzalo Hallo, an Ecuadoran. Rivera was quoted as saying Hallo was "aiding guerrillas."

An affable, friendly man, Rivera is best known for his opposition to abortion and artificial birth control and for his insistence on strict church discipline.