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Mexican bishops criticize federal police for drug raid during Mass
05-08-2009
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- The Mexican Catholic bishops' conference has criticized federal police for bursting into a Mass in Mexico's western Michoacan state to apprehend an alleged drug-cartel lieutenant.
"We make an energetic protest against the lack of respect and the violence exercised on the part of the forces responsible for guaranteeing the security of all persons in our nation -- principally in the state of Michoacan -- by interrupting a religious act ... at the moment in which holy Mass is celebrated," the bishops said in an Aug. 3 statement signed by Auxiliary Bishop Jose Gonzalez Gonzalez of Guadalajara, conference secretary-general.
"Nothing explains this kind of action inside a religious place and much less in these moments where Mexico is noted internationally as an insecure and violent country," the bishops said.
The Aug. 1 raid marked the first time that police officers have burst into a parish to arrest suspects linked to organized crime, said Father Mateo Calvillo Paz, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Morelia, which is in Michoacan.
The raid also highlighted the increasing vulnerability of church officials and the faithful of being caught up -- inadvertently or not -- in the ongoing federal crackdown on drug cartels.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20090804.htm
