President Claudia Sheinbaum defended this Thursday not to go to Pope Francis’s funeral to criticism of analysts and opponents who question her absence despite representing the second country with more Catholics in the world.
“I will not go to the ceremonies of Pope Francis and a criticism of why I am not going. What would have happened if I said? Well, the same would have been a tremendous criticism: where is the Church-State separation? Why is the funerals of Pope Francis?” The president said in her daily conference.
The ruler dismissed the criticisms unleashed on social networks after her decision on Tuesday to send to her secretary of the Interior, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, the largest position of the Cabinet, to the funeral of Francisco on Saturday in the Plaza de San Pedro despite that Mexico has 98 million Catholics, only behind Brazil.
His absence became a trend in X, where analysts like Alberto Tavira considered it a “message of unnecessary ingratitude for Mexico”, while the journalist Dolia Estévez saw him as a “lack of sensitivity and empathy.”
MOST CONTEXT: Sheinbaum will send Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Secretary of the Interior, to the Pope’s funeral
Sheinbaum says that ‘Anyway, there will be criticism’
Other critics questioned Sheinbaum’s decision because the Pontiff received it in February 2024, before starting his campaign towards the presidential elections of June 2.
“There are people who simply do not love us and anything we do, anyway, there will be criticism,” the president replied before the accusations.
Sheinbaum avoided ruling on the course that the Catholic Church should take now and claimed the secularity of the State, although he did recognize Francisco for his “humanistic, very progressive thought” and “his criticism of neoliberalism and consumerism.”
The absence of the president of Mexico also highlights because around 50 heads of state or government and 10 kings will attend the funeral next Saturday, as confirmed on Thursday the Holy See.
Among those confirmed are the president of the United States, Donald Trump; that of Argentina, Javier Milei, native country of the Pontiff; that of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; that of France, Emmanuel Macron and that of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski.
With EFE information
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