Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
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CHIAPAS, MEXICO - On October 14, 2000 over 250 Mayan peasants from all parts of Chiapas left the highland village of Acteal and began a sixty-day walking pilgrimage to the Basilica of Santa Maria of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Their starting point, Acteal, commemorates the massacre that occurred there in 1997, when 45 Bees were gunned down by government- supported paramilitaries while praying and fasting in their church.

CPTer Scott Kerr accompanied the pilgrims on the first two days of their walk, and last week CPTers Anne Herman and Carl Meyer traveled by bus to meet the pilgrimage in the tiny pueblo of Rizo de Oro, Chiapas. Meyer and Herman walked two days and almost 50 kilometers with the pilgrims, entering the state of Oaxaca on the first day. At the state border, the pickup truck of heavily armed Chiapas Public Security police that had been following the pilgrims through Chiapas turned back.

Each day the pilgrims walk 20 to 30 kilometers, beginning at 7 a.m. and ending in the early afternoon. Each night a Catholic church in a community along their route provides food and a place to sleep (usually on the church floor or outside on the ground). Each evening Oscar Salinas, vicar of the diocese of San Cristobal and a pilgrim, celebrates mass with the pilgrims and their hosts. The gospel reading during the mass is read not only in Spanish, but also in the indigenous Mayan languages of Tzotzil, Tzeltal, and Ch'ol, since most of the pilgrims speak Spanish only as a second language, if at all.

On the second evening CPTers were with the pilgrimage, Salinas offered a reflection on the text of Luke 3:31-33, reminding the pilgrims that even as they carry their prayers to the Basilica of Santa Maria of Guadalupe, mother of Jesus, they themselves are the mother and brothers of Jesus as they sacrifice themselves to follow God's call to be peacemakers.

The full prayer of the pilgrims, translated by CPT, is included below. Please pray for strength and endurance for the pilgrims, as the daily walk in the hot sun is difficult, tiring, and often painful. Please also adapt portions of this prayer to accomodate to your own religious tradition and continue to pray with the pilgrims for peace in Chiapas as they continue their journey to Mexico City and the Basilica, where they will arrive December 9, 2000.

Prayers for the Jubilee Pilgrimage 2000 from Acteal to Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico City

Leader: We ask Santa Maria of Guadalupe, Queen of Peace, for her maternal intercession for our needs.

Response (follows each prayer): Santa Maria of Guadalupe, intercede for the indigenous people.

For an end to the paramilitary groups acting in Chiapas.

For the demilitarization of Chiapas and all of Mexico.

For a return for the displaced of Tila, Chenalho, Sabanilla, Tumbala, Las Margaritas and Venustiano Carranza to their homes.

For reconciliation in our communities.

For liberty for indigenous political prisoners.

That all women, men, and children in our indigenous communities enjoy conditions for our full human development.

That we might see our mother earth freed from the profanation of the market.

That we might overcome all forms of racism and discrimination between the peoples and cultures that form our Mexican nation.

For the fulfillment, on the part of all its signers, of the San Andres Accords.

That Congress pass a Law on Indigenous Rights and Culture that satisfies the real needs of the 56 indigenous groups in this country.

That a way might be found to continue the dialogue between the EZLN and the government.

That our Zapatista brothers and sisters be taken seriously, so that without abandoning the just causes of their struggle, they might be able to lay down their weapons.

That in this period of social change in Mexico:

- the people might not fall into the temptation of violent insurrection; and

- the government might not return to the temptation of violent repression.

That the Mexican people learn and practice ethical and pacifist methods of social change:

- nonviolence

- noncooperation

- conscientious objection

- active resistance

- civil disobedience

For a peaceful transition to democracy.

That we might achieve a peace with justice and dignity for all Mexico.

- in the hearts of the people

- in the environment

- in the social structures

Father of Mercy, who has put these your people under the special protection of the always Virgin Maria of Guadalupe, Mother of your Son, allow us by her intercession to deepen our faith and to seek the progress of our nation in paths of justice and peace. By our Lord Jesus Christ, Santa Maria de Guadalupe, intercede for the indigenous people. Amen.