(ZENIT News / Rome, 22.06.2025).- Robert Royal, Director of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., comments in his book «The Martyrs of The New Millennium», that more than 80 priests have been murdered in the last 19 years in Mexico, primarily due to drug violence.
Father Omar Sotelo, of the Catholic Multimedia Center of the Archdiocese of Mexico City, explained, at a forum on religious freedom held in Washington in February 2025, that there is «aggressive and systematic intimidation» toward priests. He presented figures: in 2024 alone, 850 cases of extortion and death threats against priests were recorded, in addition to attacks against 26 churches across the country.
The disappearance of Bishop Emeritus Salvador Rangel Mendoza, 78, in February 2024, after being missing for 48 hours, was found in a Cuernavaca hospital, visibly damaged, abused, and drugged by unknown individuals, according to Guerrero State media. During his ministry, he worked to engage in direct negotiations with the cartels, seeking to minimize bloodshed. He remarked while serving as Bishop: «I take on the tasks the Government refuses to face.»
In April 2025, Father Jesus Yovani Gómez Cruz was kidnapped in the State of Sinaloa and later released, although the circumstances of the abduction remain unclear. The Bishop of his diocese in Culiacán, Jesus José Herrera Quiñónez, expressed the community’s dismay: «In light of the painful events of recent days, the violent kidnapping of Father Yovani by unknown persons, we give thanks to the Lord for his return alive.»
Priest killers are spreading across the country, such as Jesuits Javier Campos Morales and Joaquín César Mora Salazar in June 2022, in Chihuahua, for offering refuge to a man pursued by a local kingpin; Father Marcelo Pérez, an indigenous human rights defender in Chiapas in October 2024, in the diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, who demanded an end to the «criminalization» of the clergy; or the kidnapping of Father José Filiberto Velázquez Florencio of the diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, for directing the Minerva Bello Center, which defends the rights of victims of violence, in addition to being shot in the highlands.
With the arrival of President Claudia Sheinbaum to power in October 2024, an attempt has been made to establish dialogue between the Government and the Church — which had been nonexistent under her predecessor –, through a national peace agenda. During Lent, the Mexican Bishops reaffirmed their commitment to working for peace and security: “To be the voice of those who have no voice and to contribute tirelessly to building a country where justice, truth, and absolute respect for human dignity prevail.»
