Attacks against priests in Mexico have risen to an unbearable level. Organized criminals have turned to hunting down and maiming parish clergy to rise up the ranks of drug cartels and shut out the pastoral work they do in their communities.

At least 70 priests have been killed — officially recognized — in recent decades, which makes Mexico the most dangerous country in the world to be a priest. The Centro Católico Multimedial keeps track of murdered priests  (diocesan and religious) from 1990 to this year.

In addition to murders, desecrations of temples have also increased. Satanism has grown exponentially within the drug gangs, which adds even more savagery, if possible, to their criminal acts.

Fr. Omar Otero describes the situation to Publimetro : 

«They desecrate the temples and the sacred hosts, they have violated bishops, cardinals, clerics and even altar boys. No one is safe from violence. If they were stabbed five times before, now they do it 20 times and with narco-satanic messages. In some cases they have even thrown the bodies of the parents in the curve of the devil»

The assassins of various drug cartels mutilate, cut throats, torture and cut off entire parts, such as the fingers of the priests who use them to trace a cross and bless their parishioners. This is a message against those who maintain strong activism in their communities.

We know what can happen to us

Mons Herculano Medina, auxiliary bishop of Morelia, indicates that in addition to the priests whose death has been officially registered, there are others who have disappeared, others who are threatened, and indicates that this “is part of what we, by assuming this lifestyle, know that it may happen sooner or later.”

The above comes from an Oct. 4 posting on InfoCatolica (English and Spanish).