Religious persecution takes its toll on Catholic faith in Mexico
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Archdiocese of San Antonio
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Recent episodes of violence against the Catholic Church, including the murder of a priest and the attempted murder of an archbishop, once again bring to the fore the persecution of the faith in Mexico and the power of organized crime.
On May 22, Augustinian priest Javier GarcĆa VillafaƱe was found shot to death in his car on the Cuitzeo-Huandacareo highway. The MichoacĆ”n state attorney generalās office stated that he āwas killed by several gunshots.ā
Days before, an 80-year-old assailant tried to stab to death the archbishop of Durango, Faustino ArmendƔriz, in the cathedral sacristy after Mass was finished. Fortunately, the prelate was barely injured in the failed attempt.
In addition, in recent weeks there have been various cases of desecration and sacrilege in different churches in the country.
In a May 25 interview with CNAās Spanish-language news partner, ACI Prensa, Marcela Szymanski of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) pointed out that a little less than 100 years ago Mexico suffered intense religious persecution against Catholics at the hands of the Mexican government.
āThere were deaths, violence for years,ā said Szymanski, who holds a doctorate in international politics and is editor-in-chief of the Report on Religious Freedom.The period of religious persecution suffered by the Catholic Church in Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century is known as āCristiada.ā In 1926 the attacks against the faith triggered the Cristero War, the armed confrontation between Catholics and the Mexican Army that ended in 1929, although numerous civilians and Cristeros were killed in government reprisals after the official end of the conflict.The āCristiada,ā she noted, āis still not taught in schools, in free textbooks. Nothing about this religious persecution.ā
āPeople continue to think and continue to feel that Mexico is a Catholic country,ā she continued, but asked: āWhere does this notion come from? This notion stems not only from the fact that they donāt know that there was persecution but also from the fact that during the last 40 years Mexico has still been a Catholic country despite the prohibitions on practicing or living their religion in public and in private.ā
Szymanski lamented that for āabout 30 years Mexican marriages have been falling apart,ā while families no longer maintain a solid Catholic formation and have abandoned attendance at Sunday Mass.
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INEGI) for the year 2011 in Mexico there were 16 divorces for every 100 marriages. By 2019, there were already double that number with 32 divorces for every 100 marriages.
In 2021, there were 33 divorces for every 100 marriages in Mexico.
āMexico has been carried away by the anti-Christian trend that comes from the West. The vandalism attacks on the churches, the buildings, the attacks on the religious, are always against the Catholics, not against the 22 mosques that exist in the country,ā she pointed out.āMexico has been losing traditional family religiosity for decades,ā she added.
For the year 2000, according to INEGI, Catholics represented 89.7 percent of the population. Twenty years later the percentage decreased to 77.7 percent, while an increase in Protestant Christians and people āwithout religionā was noted.
For Szymanski, in Mexico, āwe have a significant mixture of ignorance with a lack of social cohesion that makes it seem natural or normal to attack the institutions, the Catholic Church, and everything that it represents.ā
āThe notion that itās an actual crime is lost,ā she said. However, such acts are prohibited under Mexican law.
Father Omar Sotelo, director of the Multimedia Catholic Center (CCM), also interviewed by ACI Prensa May 25, noted that āfor more than 10 years, Mexico has been the most dangerous country to exercise the priesthood in all of Latin America, and it is one of the primary places in the entire world.ā
According to a CCM report, between 1990 and 2022, 63 priests were murdered in Mexico, including the archbishop of Guadalajara, Cardinal Juan JesĆŗs Posadas Ocampo. Just in the last four years, during the current administration of President AndrĆ©s Manuel LĆ³pez Obrador, nine priests have been killed.
According to the report āMissionaries murdered in the year 2022ā by the Vatican Fides foundation, Mexico recorded three homicides of priests last year. Only Nigeria recorded a higher number: Four priests were killed there.
āIn theory,ā he stated, āitās not a country that has the problems of war or something like that. However, itās one of the primary countries where exercising the priesthood is dangerous.ā
āIn Mexico, we have counted at least 25 or 26 churches that have been desecrated, attacked, robbed, looted, violated in a week,ā he explained.
For Sotelo, āitās a clear sign that organized crime has practically overrun the authorities.ā
He also noted that there are places in the country where āthere are no policeā because drug traffickers are the ones who govern those areas.
āDrug trafficking has practically positioned itself strategically throughout the national territory and they have put many of the authorities in check,ā he lamented.
In this crisis situation, he explained, a priest āworks 24 hours a day, seven days a weekā as a āsocial stabilizer,ā giving āaid, defense, protection to all and to the migrantā as well as āhealth services.ā
āThe priests compete against organized crime. When they eliminate [a priest], they send two very strong messages: One, if I am able to kill a priest, I can kill whomever they want. Second, by eliminating a priest they are not killing just one person, they are attacking this entire community and this stability,ā Sotelo explained.
āThen a narco-culture, a narco-politics, a narco-economy is created,ā he warned.
In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNAās Spanish-language news partner, HĆ©rcules Medina Garfias, the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Morelia who offered the funeral Mass for the recently murdered priest VillafaƱe, pointed out that the Catholic Church āfrom the beginning has been persecuted.ā
āOur Lord ā¦ was persecuted by Herod, who had the Holy Innocents murdered and the Holy Family had to flee to Egypt,ā he said.
In the Bible, he pointed out, āthere are many passages about persecution of the first Christian community. The Apostles were persecuted.ā
Being persecuted, he stressed, āis a good sign that we are doing things right, and itās part of our history.ā