MEXICO CITY — During Mass on Sunday at the cathedral of Mexico City, the celebrant thanked God that Hurricane Patricia, the strongest hurricane recorded in the Western Hemisphere, did not cause major damage to Mexico, as was anticipated.

Father Julián López Amozurrutia, a canon at the cathedral, thanked God Oct. 25 because “he had mercy on our country in the way Hurricane Patricia landed.”

Hurricane Patricia made landfall in the Mexican state of Jalisco late on Oct. 23. It had been a Category 5 storm, with sustained winds of 202 mph; massive devastation was expected.

But the storm struck a lightly populated area and was downgraded to a Category 2 tropical storm by the morning of Oct. 24. Six people are confirmed to have died from the storm, though 400,000 people are believed to live in vulnerable areas, and subsequent landslides and flash flooding were feared.

We offer “a prayer of gratitude and petition to the Lord, who had mercy on our country by the path Hurricane Patricia took through the states that were threatened to be affected and also for the people who suffered some tragedy,” Father López said at the Mass. “We place them all on the altar of the Lord.”