Church in Mexico calls on country’s new president to address high crime rate

Puebla, Mexico, Oct 1, 2024 / 17:15 pm (CNA).

On the occasion of Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s Oct. 1 inauguration as president of Mexico, the Catholic Church made several requests to the new government, in particular issuing a call for “the dominance of organized crime and criminal activity in general” to not prevail in the country.

Sheinbaum, a candidate of the political coalition “Let’s Keep Making History” consisting of the political parties the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), the Labor Party, and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico — was the winner of Mexico’s presidential election earlier this year.

In addition to winning the presidency, MORENA and its allied parties now govern 23 of the country’s 32 states and holds a majority of seats in the Congress of the Union, Mexico’s bicameral federal legislative body.

In this context, in a Sept. 30 statement, the Mexican Bishops’ Conference offered “prayers and good wishes” for the beginning of the new administration, expressing its joy that for the first time the country has a woman president.

The bishops’ conference expressed its trust that Sheinbaum “will know how to have great sensitivity and respect, promoting everything that redounds to the good and social development of all citizens.”

However, the bishops pointed out that “reality speaks for itself and demands, immediately,” certain actions.

Among them, the Mexican bishops highlighted the implementation of “public policies that guarantee citizen security, overcome poverty and inequality, and promote national unity and harmony among all.” According to the prelates, these policies must be aimed at “achieving the goal of social peace.”

The bishops also said the country needs a society in which both the government and citizens “respect the laws” and where people can once again “live in a true democratic rule of law.”

According to their message, this requires “a federation of autonomous states, with a balance of powers, which makes us a republic that all can trust. Without trust there is no development, nor a stable future.”

Another concern expressed by the bishops was the improvement of the Mexican educational system, which they consider “recently neglected by public policies limited in resources and by a vision lacking a true humanism that forges the spirit” of children and adolescents.

They concluded their message by acknowledging that the country faces “great challenges” and called for reaching the necessary agreements with all political forces, “without annihilating minorities,” to build “the project of the common good so that Mexican society can live in peace.”

“God bless you, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, president of Mexico, and all Mexicans, members of this nation. We reiterate our willingness to join this dynamic to live together with justice and solidarity for all,” the message stated.

The message concluded by invoking the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe to “help us value all the richness of our common historical roots that make us one nation.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.