
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 12, 1993                   TAG: 9308120129
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: IZAMAL, MEXICO                                LENGTH: Short

IN MEXICO, POPE OFFERS AN APOLOGY

Pope John Paul II apologized Wednesday for the abuses committed by Christian colonizers against Indian peoples and pledged that indigenous peoples now have the full support of the Roman Catholic Church.

"Abuses were committed during the period of the colony" by authorities who did not appreciate the spiritual values of indigenous cultures or listen to their complaints, the pontiff said.

The pope made the comments to 3,000 representatives of 500 Indian cultures at a Franciscan monastery built atop a pyramid to the Mayan sun god.

The event, a delayed celebration of the 500th anniversary in 1992 of Roman Catholic evangelism in the New World, was the first stop on a 24-hour visit to Mexico.

Upon his arrival, John Paul said he wanted to make an "emotional remembrance" of Guadalajara Archbishop Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, who was slain in April in what officials say was a gunbattle among drug dealers at the Guadalajara airport.

About 80 percent of Mexico's 86 million people consider themselves Roman Catholics, although Protestant churches have grown rapidly.

by CNB