Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, Bishop Emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and head of the Doctrine of the Faith at the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), offers Exaudi readers his weekly article.

FACTS

Stupor, indignation, shame, and bewilderment have been caused by the discovery, made by mothers searching for missing persons, of a site near Guadalajara where many human remains were found, some charred, as well as shoes, sneakers, backpacks, and clothing belonging to people, mostly young people, allegedly massacred there by members of the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel. It was a camp where they were recruited, deceitfully lured with promises of good work and good salaries, but they were trained to kidnap, traffic drugs, extort, and kill. If they didn’t follow all the criminal orders, they were tortured or eliminated. Has dehumanization reached this point? This is happening in Jalisco, a state traditionally considered to have one of the highest percentages of Catholicism, and the leader of this cartel considers himself Catholic. How is this contradiction possible? What motivates them is not faith or the common good, but money, business, profit at any cost, power, the use of high-caliber weapons, and domination over others. They are children of darkness who use their intelligence not to do good, but to harm and destroy. As a Church, we also question where we have failed; but these people ignore our word, our catechism, our exhortations.

This incident is not an isolated one. It’s been happening for a long time in various parts of our country. About ten years ago, a nephew of mine was kidnapped and taken to the mountains of Guerrero to grow drugs. He and others were held as slaves; they were given anything to eat, watched over with machine guns to prevent them from escaping, and tortured. My nephew managed to escape, thanks to the many prayers we offered for his release, and he told us everything they were doing to them.

With varying degrees of criminal cruelty, in various places, dismembered and decapitated bodies are turning up, corpses hung from bridges, dissolved in acid, thrown into ravines, shot to death, and disappeared without a trace. How evil! It is said that to get the recruits to go to such extremes, they are drugged, indoctrinated, and threatened that if they don’t, they will be killed or their families killed. And our authorities? They blame each other. In the previous six-year term, under the pretext of not continuing the war on drugs, which was implemented in another six-year term, they were given considerable freedom and tolerance. The strategy was to address the causes of violence, offering jobs, education, and financial support to young people, but crime and social disintegration increased dramatically. Despite these catastrophic results, there are still those who defend this strategy, exonerate the previous leader, and continue to support his cause.

ENLIGHTENMENT

The Second Vatican Council, in its Constitution on The Church in the World, realistically describes what is happening in humanity, but offers Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life: “The modern world appears at once powerful and weak, capable of the best and the worst, for it has the path open to choose between freedom or slavery, between progress or regression, between brotherhood or hatred. Man knows full well that it is in his power to correctly direct the forces he has unleashed, which can crush him or serve him.

The Church believes that Christ, who died and rose for all, gives man his light and strength through the Holy Spirit so that he may respond to his highest calling, and that no other name under heaven has been given to humanity by which it is necessary to be saved. In the light of Christ, image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation, the Council speaks to all to clarify the mystery of man and to cooperate in finding solutions that respond to the principal problems of our “This era” (GS 9-10).

The Mexican episcopate, for its part, expresses its profound indignation and sorrow at the recent discovery of an organized crime training and extermination camp. This discovery constitutes one of the cruelest expressions of evil and human misery we have witnessed in our country. As pastors of the Church in Mexico:

1. We denounce with deep concern the existence of many places like this in our nation, sites where the most serious crimes against humanity have been committed. These acts directly violate the sacred dignity of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God.
2. We point out that these findings reveal the irresponsible failure of government authorities at all three levels to address one of the most critical problems facing the country: the disappearance of persons. This reality demands an immediate, forceful, and coordinated response from the Mexican State.
3. We express our astonishment that, while intentional murders are presumed to have decreased by 15%, attempts are being made to conceal the fact that disappearances are increasing by 40%. Unfortunately, the majority of these victims are our young people.
4. We recognize and extol the extraordinary work of the searching mothers and various civic organizations who, driven by their pain, courage, and tenacity, are the ones truly making progress in the search for their loved ones and making decisive discoveries that keep the cry for justice alive. Their testimony challenges us all as a society.
5. We respectfully urge the authorities to: – Thoroughly investigate these events with transparency and effectiveness. – Stop evading their responsibility or attempting to hide this reality. – Urgently strengthen, at all three levels of government, the mechanisms for searching for and identifying missing persons. – Implement effective policies to prevent these atrocious crimes and ensure their non-repetition. As a society and as a nation, we must resoundingly commit to: NEVER AGAIN! – Definitively break any alliances that may exist between organized crime and certain political circles to free Mexico from this moral decadence.
6. We offer our participation in spaces for dialogue and collaboration to address this humanitarian crisis, accompany the victims, and contribute to the reconstruction of the social fabric so damaged by these acts of extreme violence” (March 12, 2025).

ACTIONS

From our families, groups, and parish communities, let us convert to the Lord Jesus, let us heed His Word more, especially during this time of Lent. He always invites us to respect and love all people. Our salvation is in Christ!