AMERICA/MEXICO - Bishops’ Statement: “In the face of ominous forces that seek to destroy our country, we are called not to be overcome with hate, but to work together in building a peaceful future.”

Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) – The Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM) “along with all Catholics and men and women of good will; reject the violence and manifest their condemnation of the kidnapping, killing, and acts of aggression committed against any person, especially the innocent,” and regret “the brutal killing of Karina Reyes, the niece of Archbishop Hipolito Reyes Larios of Xalapa,” in a statement entitled: “Working together to build peace.”
The Bishops regret the fact that every day there are reports of kidnapping and killing committed against innocent people. “As Mexicans, we should not allow this to continue occurring. The only antidotes in irradiating these crimes on our streets are education, a culture that denounces such acts, demanding justice from our authorities, intolerance, and condemnation of these events.” They express their confidence that authorities “will take up the responsibility of these regretful events, as only through their response will impunity and the repetition of such attacks against the innocent be avoided.”
“In the face of ominous forces that seek to destroy our country, we are called not to be overcome with hate, but rather to strengthen national unity, justice and reconciliation and work together in building a peaceful future,” the Bishops concluded.
Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico City also issued a brief statement condemning the criminal acts. “In these moments” – it reads – “hope is an obligatory virtue that should awaken in us the confidence that these problems meet a prompt solution, that our country may regain justice, peace, dignity, respect, and love among its citizens.”
Karina Reyes, the 23-year-old niece of the Archbishop of Xalapa (Veracruz) Hipolito Reyes Larios, and the daughter of the Rector of the “Universidad del Golfo,” Luis Reyes Larios, was kidnapped on June 12 and her body was later found on June 15, inside a black plastic bag, having been stabbed and suffocated to death. According to the preliminary investigations, it seems that she may have been kidnapped by acquaintances of the Reyes family, from whom a ransom was demanded.
This is not the first time that the Bishops of Mexico denounce the acts of violence going on in the country, asking that the wave of kidnapping, killing, and violence come to an end. The Archdiocese of Mexico City recently stated that the violence is “placing the peace of Mexico in grave danger and reveals the decomposing of the social fabric that is being torn apart, mostly by the forces of corruption and drug-trafficking.”
The Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, in a recent pastoral visit to the Diocese of Tabasco for its 128th anniversary of foundation, affirmed that in order to face the problem of violence, “it is not enough to simply condemn it, but concrete solutions must be reached and the Church can contribute to this end, taking into account that violence also arises from a lack of values and from poverty.” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 18/6/2008)