Priests' killings sparks church to demand change

Murders a signal moment for Mexico?

MEXICO CITY » The killing this week of two Jesuit priests inside a church in Mexico stunned a country where frustration had been building for years over the government’s failure to stem a deluge of killing.

But this time, the government faces pointed criticism from one of the nation’s most powerful institutions, the Roman Catholic Church, amplifying the public outcry.

The conference of Mexican bishops urged the government on Thursday to “revise the security strategies, which are failing.” Rectors of Jesuit universities slammed the government’s inability to wrest control away from criminals, with one calling Mexico “a failed state.”

Even Pope Francis, a Jesuit

from Argentina, said in his weekly audience from the Vatican that he was “dismayed” by the attack. “How many killings there are in Mexico!” he posted on Twitter.

The homicide rate in Mexico is near its highest level in decades. Nearly 100 people are murdered daily. Beach vacationers have been slain at resorts.

Still, the killing of two priests known for serving the rural poor in the northern state of Chihuahua shook a deeply Catholic society where religious leaders have generally been spared the brunt of the brutality. The attack, in which a tour guide was also killed, may eventually be remembered as a signal moment in Mexico’s long struggle with violence, or as just another unspeakable horror.

But the outcry from the Catholic Church, a moral authority, has at least for now handed President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador a challenge he isn’t accustomed to: a critic he cannot easily dismiss.

“When tourists are killed in Cancun or women are killed in Monterrey, the pope doesn’t weigh in,” said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst in Mexico City. “Now, the frustration is being led by a sophisticated and socially entrenched institution, with powerful international connections.”

Lopez Obrador has called the killings “unacceptable” and promised a thorough investigation, sending soldiers to Chihuahua to search for the perpetrator said to be responsible.

Still, the president, who tends to lash out at his perceived adversaries, has been careful not to denigrate Catholic leaders. He also has not claimed, as he has in the past, that the violence in this case was driven by criminals killing one another.

“This is one instance where it is outright impossible to blame the victims,” Hope said.