In a church north of Mexico City, a prayer is distributed among the participants in the celebration in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe: “Lord Jesus, faced with the serious threats that we experience today in Mexico, due to the proposed laws that threaten the faith that you have revealed to us, political polarization and generalized violence, we ask for your intervention to prevent Mexico from allowing itself to be locked into the culture of silence, lies and death that these threats impose. The parishioners repeat it in unison. Social demands for greater security for the country found place in the fervor of the Catholic faithful who placed their biggest problems in the hands of the patron saint of Mexicans. Prayer follows the line that divides the political and spiritual terrain. “Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of Mexico, save our country and protect our faith,” we can hear in the church. The same week, President Claudia Sheinbaum acknowledged that the request for Pope Leo XIV to visit Mexico next year, as a major player in the fight against violence, had been transferred to the Vatican.
The sentence, which has no sender, kicks off a series of controversial issues in public life. The women who lead the prayers attribute authorship to the parish priest, who could not be contacted. This is not a practice supported by ecclesiastical authorities, but it is not prohibited either. The Conference of the Mexican Episcopate (CEM) denies being the author, but sees no fault in these remarks. “It is an initiative of prayer for things that hurt the people. Whoever wrote it reflects the feelings of many Mexicans,” said the spokesperson for the Catholic Church in Mexico, Mgr. Héctor Mario Pérez Villarreal, auxiliary bishop of Mexico.
In the Basilica of Guadalupe, the most important and most visited Marian sanctuary in the world, a liturgical act begins every hour, equivalent to the number of sermons that the priests address to the participants, demarcated by the same line. “When peace seems to disappear, because we are going through a moment of frustration, of uncertainty because there is no work…”, the clergyman speaks in a message with similar content on the shortcomings of the Mexican people. For the deputy director of Radio and Television of the Archbishopric of Mexico and priest of the Archdiocese of Mexico, José de Jesús Aguilar, these expressions are natural and respond to the clamor of the faithful. “In the basilica, all the situations that society experiences are welcomed. People ask for a job, for the missing person to return, for justice to be done. The one who presides welcomes all these requests and makes people feel that their needs are heard, that they feel welcomed, that they feel that the Church responds to their fears and their needs”, says the religious.
The prayer to the Virgin of Tepeyac for the country and faith raises the tone. “Lord, breathe into us, your children, a spirit of unity to save Mexico,” concludes the prayer, which Pérez Villarreal said “represents the valid concerns of a Catholic Mexican” but is not the voice of the Church. The petition remains anonymous, while the authorities attribute its distribution to the faithful. “You see a Mexican citizen, a Catholic, expressing the pain he feels in the face of what is happening in Mexico,” said the spokesperson. The idea that it comes from a religious minister does not arouse outcry either, he affirms: “Even if it comes from a priest, he does not express anything that is contrary to doctrine. He asks the Virgin of Guadalupe to intercede for the problems of Mexico, he does not speak of any party”, added the prelate.
The prayer, of unknown origin, succeeded in capturing the position of the Church on current issues. The presentation of reform proposals from the ruling party has strained relations with the Church more than one can see, such as those that limit the freedom of opinion of religious people and which have attracted public attention, to the point that Arturo Ávila, Morena’s spokesperson in the Mexican Congress, withdrew his proposal that obliged priests, pastors and ministers of religion who distribute content on social networks or multimedia platforms to register and report their content to the Ministry of the Interior and a digital agency. The argument behind the reform considered and rejected was the spread of hate speech emanating from the religious sphere. “The prayer refers to laws that threaten faith, like that of Arturo Ávila recently, to the confusion caused by gender ideology so anchored in school textbooks, political polarization is evident, widespread violence is evident,” defends the spokesperson.
The defense came on all fronts. “The Church has its own opinion; that does not mean that it gets involved in political parties, it simply makes an analysis of reality,” emphasizes Aguilar. In the parish of San Cosme and San Damián, from where the priest is dispatching, no leaflets or cards have been distributed, but there is general unease, he commented. “Everyone hopes that the government, regardless of party, will resolve this situation and not only put the blame on previous governments, but face the moment. »
In the same temple, a sculpture representing an eagle and a serpent, symbol of the Mexican flag, was unveiled. “It’s about inviting people so that before entering the church they remember that we must always ask for our country, be proud of it and understand that it cannot move forward without the commitment of Mexicans, of believers,” explains Aguilar. There was placed the figure of a woman covered with a shawl, kneeling, praying and searching for something. “The country cries for your children,” they titled it. A tribute to the missing and their families who tirelessly search for them. “The story touches us; the Catholic has his feet on the ground, in a land which at the moment is hurting him”, concludes the spokesperson about the message which is circulating among the parishioners and which they hope to find an echo higher up.
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