The figures that hurt
During the so-called 4T governments, 13 priests have fallen. Yes, they are less than the 19 during Peña Nieto’s six-year term. But Omar Sotelo Aguilar, from the Catholic Multimedia Center, is clear about the message: the violence is increasing.
“A very worrying phenomenon appears: the escalation of high-impact violence against religious spaces”
Ten under López Obrador. Three with Sheinbaum. And a painful statistic: 80% of these crimes come to nothing. No responsibilities. Without justice.
They are not numbers, they are faces
Of the last three, two were pillars in their communities. Father Marcelo Pérez in Chiapas. Father Bartolo Pantaleón Estrada in Guerrero. Social leaders, not just religious ones.
And then there are the secularists: 23 murdered in Chiapas and Guanajuato during these governments. Ordinary people linked to parish activities.
“These are not isolated events but symptoms of a greater evil”
Sotelo Aguilar says it bluntly: it is the loss of values, the sacred relativized and that invincible impunity that allows everything.
Temples under attack
One thousand three hundred places of worship violated. The breakdown is revealing:
- 84%: thefts (common or sacred art)
- 10%: high-impact attacks by organized crime
- 6%: direct attacks and sacrilege
Thirty years of blood: a cardinal, 62 priests, a deacon, four religious, 23 lay people… including a Catholic journalist.
“If we do not act with the forcefulness that is required now […] it is a matter of time before an assassination […] occurs again”
The final warning is grim. Name Veracruz, Guanajuato, Jalisco. Call for “sensible and intelligent” actions. Before normalization completes its dirty work.
