MONTERREY, Mexico, JULY 12, 2011 (Zenit.org).- After last Friday’s shooting spree in a Monterrey bar that killed 21 people, the archbishop of the city, Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega expressed the grief of the Church, saying that despite the fact Mexican authorities are waging war on drug trafficking, it continues to rear its ugly head.
In a press conference after Mass on Sunday, Cardinal Robles Ortega referred to what is now called «the massacre of Sabino Gordo,» the name of the bar located in central Monterrey, in the northern state of Nuevo Leon.
The cardinal of Monterrey said that «what we see in the heart of our city is very grave and lamentable.»
He called it «astonishing» that drug trafficking continues with such strength, despite «such a long time of being combated.»
Referring to another incident some two weeks ago, the cardinal said the series of crimes «indicates that the criminals are not weakened, that they have the power, the brazenness, so to speak, to make an excessive show of their strength in these cases.»
«No matter how much it is said that these people were linked to crime, no one should die so coldly.» No one, said Cardinal Robles Ortega, can so dispose of the lives of others. This means that the degree «of contempt for life that has been reached reflects estrangement from God who is Life.»
«If the criminals had experienced in their life that God is the source of Life, they would think twice» before committing these atrocities, the cardinal asserted.
«It is very easy to imply that measures are being taken against crime,» he concluded, «yet not go to the root of things.»
