{"id":28560,"date":"2018-05-08T09:40:16","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T09:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=28560"},"modified":"2018-05-09T07:16:41","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T07:16:41","slug":"mexico-clergy-appeal-for-an-end-to-violence-acn-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/05\/08\/mexico-clergy-appeal-for-an-end-to-violence-acn-international\/","title":{"rendered":"MEXICO: Clergy appeal for an end to violence &#8211; ACN International"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>MEXICO<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>Clergy appeal for an end to violence<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">An impassioned appeal to the Mexican government to stamp out \u201cgrowing uncontrolled violence\u201d has come from a Catholic priest whose organization has exposed the country as being the most dangerous place for clergy in the whole of Latin America. In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, Father Sergio Omar, director of Mexico\u2019s Catholic Multimedia Centre (CCM), said \u201cwe cannot remain silent\u201d about a crisis where \u201creligious freedom has been\u2026 seriously threatened by organized crime\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Father Omar described how the CCM had exposed widespread corruption protecting attackers, saying that \u201ckilling a priest\u2026symbolizes a demonstration of power by the criminal organizations\u201d. His words come after Father Juan Garcia, 33, and Father Ruben Diaz, 50, were killed in separate attacks in their churches. On April 25, Fr. Mois\u00e9s Fabila, the 84-year-old chaplain of the Choir of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe was found dead in Cuernavaca, the capital of the state of Morelos, south of Mexico City. Fr. Mois\u00e9s had been kidnapped. The ransom demanded by his captors had been paid, but owing to the priest\u2019s delicate health (he was in Cuernavaca to rest following an illness) he was unable to survive his captivity. He was the fourth priest to be found dead (three murdered and one the victim of a supposed accident) in less than a week. At least 24 priests have been murdered in Mexico within the last five years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Highlighting that many others are suffering besides priests, Father Omar said: \u201cWe cannot remain silent as the blood of thousands of Mexicans is shed. \u201cThis is why we are directing an urgent appeal to the federal government of Mexico, to the authorities of the various states and to the city governments. \u201cWe want them to guarantee that pastoral care can safely be carried out in regions beset by growing uncontrolled violence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Father Omar said drug cartels had formed alliances with some politicians and judges as well as members of the police and security forces which \u201ccauses decay in society from top to bottom\u201d. Drug cartel violence is evident across all 32 Mexican states but it is particularly severe in some regions including Michoac\u00e1n State whose Pacific coastline location means it is an important drug route. Finding Mexico to be the most dangerous country in Latin America for priests, the CCM is tracking attacks by gangs of kidnappers, shootings and bomb attacks against the Church, including Mexico City\u2019s cathedral.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Illustrating the use of terror tactics by violent cartels within the country, the Catholic organization calculates that torture was involved in 80 percent of cases where priests were murdered. Father Omar\u2019s book \u2018Tragedy and Crucible \u2013 the Priesthood in Mexico\u2019 details \u201cveritable religious persecution\u201d including the killing of Cardinal Juan J\u00e9sus Posadas Ocampo in Guadalajara airport as well as the murder of 47 priests and 15 Church workers between 1990 and 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Father Omar\u2019s publication \u2013 part-funded by Aid to the Church in Need (Mexico) \u2013 outlines the threats and violence used against priests, denouncing drug trafficking as well as corrupt government agencies, members of the police and contract killers. He said: \u201cIn 80 percent of the cases, the murderers use a modus operandi that includes everything from defamation to extortion, abduction to torture, kidnapping to murder.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Saying that some state officials and media in Mexico are controlled by drug cartels and are carrying out\u00a0 \u201csmear campaigns\u201d against murdered clergy, Father Omar said: \u201cUnscrupulous media [attempt to] explain or justify the murder of a priest by spreading all sorts of rumours \u2013 they sometimes accuse the victims of being alcoholics or even child molesters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In 2017 alone, the CCM noted 884 cases of threats and blackmail aimed at clergy and that at least 49 priests have been murdered within the last 30 years. Last year, Aid to the Church in Need provided about \u00a3180,000 (\u20ac207,000) to support projects in Mexico, including more than \u00a312,000 ($17,300) in Mass stipends for 18 Jesuits working among the impoverished indigenous population.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><\/h5>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>ACN International<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MEXICO Clergy appeal for an end to violence &nbsp; An impassioned appeal to the Mexican government to stamp out \u201cgrowing uncontrolled violence\u201d has come from a Catholic priest whose organization has exposed the country as being the most dangerous place for clergy in the whole of Latin America. In an interview with Aid to the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MEXICO: Clergy appeal for an end to violence - ACN International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/05\/08\/mexico-clergy-appeal-for-an-end-to-violence-acn-international\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MEXICO: Clergy appeal for an end to violence - ACN International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MEXICO Clergy appeal for an end to violence &nbsp; An impassioned appeal to the Mexican government to stamp out \u201cgrowing uncontrolled violence\u201d has come from a Catholic priest whose organization has exposed the country as being the most dangerous place for clergy in the whole of Latin America. 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