Priests in Jeopardy

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TRANSCRIPT

It's no secret there's a priest shortage in the Catholic Church.

Here to tell us more about one country having a tough time keeping good clerics is Church Militant's Nick Wylie.

It's not easy being a good priest in today's Church. 

In tonight's In-Depth Report, we discuss the dangers of being ordained on the other side of America's southern border. 

Al Jazeera: "Violence in Mexico is at its highest point in decades. Statistics suggest nearly 100 people are murdered in the country every day. The Catholic Church says Mexico is going through a historic wave of violence."

At least 70 priests have been murdered in Mexico since 1990, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a Catholic priest, according to news websites The Guardian and Publimetro.

Some drug cartels even promote members for murdering a cleric. 

According to Centro Católico Multimedial:

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 priests at the footstep of the Devil.

Hundreds of priests have reported receiving death threats, and some have gone into hiding to escape torture or murder from gangs.

According to an article in Publimetro:

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

On average, 26 churches are reportedly attacked each week across Mexico's nearly 100 dioceses. 

Arturo Carrasco revealed, "The fear and respect for the priests of Mexico was lost — one of the last links in society that organized crime did not dare to touch for different reasons, such as fear of God."

Once known for being a Catholic stronghold with great Marian devotion, Mexico has seen a steady decline in the Faith in recent times.

There has also reportedly been a rise in satanism among criminals.

Fr. Javier Davila, Jesuit priest: "We continue to demand justice — that the federal public security policy be changed — because this is not working, no matter how much the authorities say that it is working. Nothing is going to change."

In 2020, Mexican cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez published a video message to Mexicans warning about the current leftist government's push for communism in the country. 

He declared, "What is the finality? Dominate, so that a new world order is established — so that, once the peoples are weakened and impoverished, the individual personality of the citizens has ended, they can be easily managed."

Mexico has seen an almost 50% drop in its number of Catholic priests since 1970, and the violence threatened against God's ministers is only making the vocations crisis even worse. 

The percentage of Catholics in Mexico attending Mass at least once a month dropped from 71% in 1970 to 36% in 2021.

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