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Vatican Alert....

religious service -- as many as four a day, be-
ginning at 4 a.m. All must perform a day of
It could be a scene from the 16th century -- communal work each week. All must apply for
monks in brown robes and nuns in blue ones permission to travel to the Outside.
watching over barefoot children playing hap-
pily in the shadow of a fortress-like church on Men are forbidden to wear their hair long.
a hill. Women must cover their heads with pastel
shawls -- whose colors, ranging from sky blue
But this is Mexico at the turn of the millennium. to purple, reflect their place in the town's relig-
And the town of Nuevo Jerusalen -- New Jeru- ious hierarchy, from "pilgrims" to "Juanitas" to
salem -- is locked in a fervent battle to stave "courtesans" to "nuns." They also wear ankle-
off the apocalypse by keeping the modern length costumes that are a cross between tradi-
world at bay. tional Indian dress and medieval garb.

There are no babies here, no school beyond The priests preside over near-daily costume
fifth grade. There is no need for such things. parties evoking past eras, the fairytale aspect of
Because the world is about to end in a fiery the cult that inspired filmmaker Arturo Ripstein
apocalypse at the end of the millennium, towns- to base his 1998 movie "Evangelio de las
people believe. And, they add, only those liv- Marvilla" on Nuevo Jerusalen.
ing in the "holy land" of this verdant western
Mexican valley will be spared, by a Virgin "On the verge of the new millennium, those
Mary who will point the direction to a new without hope have made the will of God their
phase of existence. own: absurd, illogical, compelling, tinged with
the color of infantile dreams," Ripstein wrote.
The hierarchy of "priests," "bishops" and "car-
dinals" who run the town according to their Nuevo Jerusalen began in 1973, when "Papa
own peculiar brand of Catholicism -- and who Nabor," a defrocked parish priest, split from
commanded the town be built upon what were what he saw as the failings of modern Roman
once cornfields -- enforce special rules to en- Catholicism and founded a religion based on
sure that only the purest can enjoy their version messages from the Virgin Mary relayed by an
of paradise. illiterate old woman.

Dozens of people have been expelled for wak-
ing up late, missing mass, wearing makeup --
but most of them have settled just outside the
town's limits, hoping salvation at least will be
near.

A chain stretches across the only access road,
manned around the clock by guards. A carefully
lettered sign lays out the rules for residents,
known as "vivientes," or "living ones." No dat-
ing among residents -- No drugs or alcohol --
No cars or bicycles -- No makeup. There are
other strictures: Televisions and radios are for-
bidden. All residents must attend every

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