“Don’t save their souls! Save them!”

“Don’t save their souls! Save them!” is Juan Parada’s sharpest rejection of Cardinal Antonucci’s response to the Mexico City earthquake. When Antonucci calls the disaster an act of God and an opportunity to save millions of souls, Parada redirects the appeal from spiritual redemption to the immediate needs of people in danger and poverty.

Context and Exchange

Cardinal Antonucci presents the earthquake as an opening for religious work: “The earthquake was an act of God—” and, he continues, it “provides an opportunity to save the souls of millions of Mexicans.” Parada interrupts with the expression, turning Antonucci’s language of salvation against its emphasis on souls: “Don’t save their souls! Save them!” The repeated verb makes the difference in their positions unmistakable. For Parada, the urgent task is not to interpret catastrophe as an opportunity, but to help those enduring it.

Meaning and Stakes

Parada’s response extends beyond the earthquake’s victims. His thoughts encompass millions living in poverty: people in Mexico City’s slums, people living on garbage dumps in Tijuana, and landless peasants in Chiapas described as little more than serfs. That wider frame makes “them” refer not only to those struck by a single disaster but also to people living under persistent deprivation. The expression insists on material human need where Antonucci’s appeal places spiritual salvation first.

Conflict and Force

The exchange is also a clash over what religious authority should prioritize. Antonucci calls Parada’s answer heresy; Parada replies, “Good!” The terse response accepts the charge rather than retreating from the challenge. In context, the expression works as both an interruption and a demand: it refuses to let pious language displace the suffering of the people it claims to serve.