Mexico: Priests targets for extortion, kidnapping, murder

From Agenzia Fides:

Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) – Last year more than one thousand priests were victims of attempted extortions (for their “protection”, amounts ranging from ten thousand to two million Mexican pesos have been demanded). About 162 were threatened with death. Two priests were kidnapped and killed. In the last six years, the most violent of all time, 12 men religious were killed. According to an analysis by Catholic Media Centre (CMC), criminals are seeking money in exchange for protection, while pastors are being threatened with arson against their churches.

Comparing the figures, during the administration of Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) three priests were murdered. During the government of Vicente Fox (2000-2006) there were four assaults against priests, but under the present government of Felipe Calderón there has been the highest number of murders of priests: 12. The states with the highest incidence of crimes against priests and religious are the Federal District, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Michoacán, Hidalgo, Aguascalientes, Coahuila e Puebla.

The report prepared by the Research Centre of the CMC on violence against priests across the country, is divided into two parts, and goes back to 1993. This report not only presents the data collected, but it also gives a series of answers to the question: “Why are priests in Mexico persecuted and killed?”. The different responses outline a neo-persecution of priests for what they represent in the community. They try to intimidate, to harass or to limit their freedom because the priests, in the end, perform a public function that generally disturbs criminal acts. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 18/03/2011)

And the Obama Administration was/is considering trying fund efforts within Mexico to undermine present values and impose new values.  Here.

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7 Comments

  1. Clinton says:

    After all of the persecutions the Church in Mexico has endured over the last century–
    the confiscations of all Church properties, the dissolution of the monasteries, the expulsion
    of the Church from public life, the deportation of all foreign-born priests and religious,
    the martyrdoms and vandalism of the Christo Rey war– it’s a miracle She’s still standing.

    Most of us here in the States are unaware just how anti-Church the regime there has been
    since Spain withdrew. The Mexican constitution forbids the Church from owning property,
    operating schools and charities, and until recently even forbade priests from wearing clerical
    dress in public. Of course, like so many other laws in Mexico, those provisions of the
    constitution are ignored unless the Church makes a nuisance of Herself– then She’ll be
    reminded of Her place most ricky-tick.

    In short, being a priest in Mexico was already no bed of roses. And now there’s this.

    I hope that none of us here in the US are feeling too smug about our relative religious freedom
    and rule of law. The drug cartels that are destabilizing that nation are only powerful because
    they’re awash in money made from selling us Americans billions of dollars worth of illegal
    recreational drugs every year. If we weren’t so irresponsible, self-indulgent, and, well,
    decadent, those cartels would wither and die.

  2. Geremia says:

    Pretiosa in conspectu Domini mors Sanctorum eius.

  3. Geremia says:

    @Clinton: Although Mexico contains the world’s 2nd largest Catholic population (1st being Brazil), it only has 8440 Catholics per priest, compared to 1150 in Italy, 1440 in the U.S., and 8630 in Brazil (source). It is amazing She is still alive in Mexico. St. Joseph, protector of Holy Church, pray for us!

  4. pablo says:

    American and Mexican Freemasonry.

    Ban Freeemasonry in Mexico you cut off the head of the serpent.

    *

  5. homeschoolofthree says:

    Perhaps we ought to start a campaign here in America to stop vacationing and spending our tourism dollars in Mexico as long as the Church is persecuted there?

  6. EXCHIEF says:

    The Church in Mexico is the enemy of—the drug cartels. The cartels run the country by bribes or by violence. The Catholic Clergy do not play the cartels’ game and thus they are increasingly targeted. There will be more of this, on both sides of the border, as the increasingly large, increasingly powerful, filthy rich and heavily armed cartels expand their scope of operations.

    What is happening now was predicted nearly 30 years ago by a professional colleague who at the time was one of the few honest, dedicated, and well educated officials in the Mexican Federal Police. His predictions have been 100% accurate.

  7. Clinton says:

    Back in the ’90’s the Cardinal Archbishop of Guadalajara was shot by three jeeps full of
    gunmen as he sat in his car at the Guadalajara airport. He died, as did his driver and several
    bystanders. The government’s official explanation was that members of a cartel had
    mistaken his vehicle for that of a rival drug kingpin whom they’d planned to ambush.
    Eyewitnesses ridiculed that explanation, noting that before opening fire gunmen had
    approached the car and peered inside, where the Cardinal sat in full clericals (he was
    at the airport to receive the Papal Nuncio). His Eminence had recently been denouncing
    both the cartels and the government corruption that enables them…

    Those folks that yearn for America to be a society where religion is exclusively a private
    matter, a cultural artifact that has been pushed out of the public square in the name of
    ‘separation of Church and state’, have only to look to the south to see how that ends up.

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