Mexican bishop meets with gang leaders to protect priests from violent threats

A bishop in Mexico's Guerrero state has recently met with gang leaders to seek a solution to drug and gang-related violence that plagues the city and to protect the priests who were receiving death threats.

In an interview with Radio Formula on March 27, Bishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza of Chilpancingo-Chilapa said he has been concerned about the promotion of "peace, harmony, dialogue" since he came to the diocese in 2015.

"When I saw that some priests had been threatened by them, including one quite seriously, I took up the task of going to go see these people (the gang leaders) and talking with them," he narrated.

Rangel said that he was able to contact the gang leaders through third parties. During meetings, he told the leaders that "with the death (of a priest) we're not going to be able to settle anything," adding that the situation in Guerrero will only become worse.

He admitted that he has not met with all the violent groups in the area and noted that "almost all of Guerrero is in the hands of drug traffickers."

Fr. Benito Cuenca Mayo, the spokesman for the Chilpancingo-Chilapa diocese, said that more than one priest has been affected by the lack of security in the area, and this prompted Mendoza to initiate dialogue with the gang leaders.

"Thanks to those meetings for dialogue he's had with them, it has been possible to not have these lamentable incidents of death threats against some of our brother priests," he told Catholic News Agency.

Cuenca said that the bishop has expressed his willingness to mediate between the authorities and criminal gangs to bring about peace in the area.

Xavier Olea, the attorney general of Guerrero, admitted earlier this month that the crime rate in the state has gone up due to organized crime.

The Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System reported that 165 murders were recorded in Guerrero in January and another 175 were recorded in February, making it the most violent state in Mexico.

A number of priests have fallen victim to the violence in other parts Mexico recently. In late March, a priest was killed in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit. Another priest was kidnapped in the Gulf coast city of Tampico, but he was later released unharmed.

Last year, two priests were murdered in the state of Veracruz, and another one was killed in the state of Michoacan. It has been estimated that 32 priests have been killed in Mexico since 2006.