CPTNet
CPTnet
November 1, 2000
CHIAPAS: Pray with the Pilgrims. Jubilee Pilgrimage 2000

The Civil Society of the Bees, the organization Xi'nich [the
Ants], and some brothers and sisters from our communities & villages,
have
decided to carry our prayers to the House of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
to ask
that she might make our hearts larger, that we might have greater spirit
to keep struggling for a just peace and a life with dignity for our
people.

from the Jubilee Pilgrimage 2000 flyer

On October 14, 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 Dec 9.

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, Chenalh