Many Priests in Mexico Threatened by Drug Dealers Says Catholic Church

The Archdiocese of Mexico through its Archbishop, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, condemned the cowardly attack which took place in the city of Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, which caused the death of over 50 people. 

“We are talking about innocent people of civil society in addition to the large number of victims of cruelty and viciousness of organized crime, which like a whip punishes our poor country”, this is what is read in the statement regarding the tragedy, of which a copy was sent to Fides. 

According to the local press, at least 53 people were killed in the fire lit by armed men in a casino in Monterrey, in northern Mexico.

The Church has several times raised her voice against the violence that affects Mexico and the continuing threats of armed groups. 

A few days ago, the Archdiocese had already denounced in an editorial in the weekly “Desde La Fe”, the situation of many priests across the country: “There are many priests in Mexico who live under the constant threat of drug dealing, because of their work within organizations that defend human rights or for denouncing abuses and crimes of drug dealers. Particular outrage, in June 2009, was provoked by the murder of a Catholic priest and two seminarians while they were leaving a church in southern Mexico. They had dared to denounce violence against the faithful on behalf of a group of drug dealers. The clergy is more exposed in rural areas, where dealers rage and the state does not succeed in enforcing the law. According to Manuel Corral, secretary for public relations for the Mexican Episcopal Conference, at least a thousand of the fifteen thousand priests in Mexico have been threatened indirectly, and at least three hundred directly”.

The statement, which was published yesterday, also condemns the murder of the journalist Humberto Millán Salazar, in the city of Culiacan, in Sinaloa, and asks all the faithful to pray for those who have died because of violence. 

At the same time it underlines the importance to live in justice and peace, so much desired by the country.

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