The Catholic Church in Mexico will have important challenges, marked by the start of the new leftist government headed by Claudia Sheinbaum and the legislative predominance and governors of his party, Morena.
This generates expectations about how the public policies of the new government will impact Catholics and their relationship with the State, especially in issues that have been qualified as a “very bad news for life, family and freedoms.”
Receive the main news of ACI Press by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social networks. Subscribe to our free channels today:
One of the unknowns is whether the marked confrontation that existed in the relationship between the Mexican Episcopate (CEM) and the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, founder of Morena, which ended in September 2024, will continue.
One of the most tense moments occurred in 2022, when the now former president accused the bishops and priests of remaining silent against violence during previous governments, while openly criticizing his administration.
Until now, Sheinbaum has shown a more open attitude towards Mexican bishops. During the federal elections campaign held in June 2024, he met three times with the Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM).
The first was within the framework of the 115th Plenary Assembly in 2023, where he heard his proposals as an aspiring presidency; the second in 2024, already as a candidate, to sign the “commitment for peace” proposed by the Catholic Church; and the third in April 2024, during the 116th Plenary Assembly. In addition, in November, after assuming the presidency, he attended a plenary assembly of the bishops again.
Within the framework of this last meeting, Mons. Ramón Castro Castro, president of the CEM, celebrated That the president has shown opening by “having heard us, having felt the pain of some shepherds who are in the front line of the battle, filled us with hope (…) reaching her, reaching her team, gives us hope in the Horizon we expect to be effective, ”he added.
1. The stalking of organized crime violence
During the six-year period of López Obrador (2018-2024), They were recorded 199,970 murders, which is equivalent to an average of 94 daily homicides, the most violent period in modern history of Mexico. In the first 121 days of Claudia Sheinbaum, 9,367 homicides have already been reported, that is, 78 daily.
In this context in which the violence generated by organized crime continues to charge lives and causing disappearances, the Catholic Church in Mexico must prepare to face these challenges.
In several states, priests have constantly denounced the harassment of organized crime and have made criminal calls to depose weapons.
An outstanding case is that of Guerrero, where bishops and priests have intervened to cause criminal groups to reach agreements that improve some conditions in the communities.
Violence has also reached the Church, with the murder of priests, aggressions to religious ministers and an increase in robberies in temples. Which will demand a firm pastoral response, as well as security measures to protect communities and their assets.
2. The response to the migrants crisis
The complex immigration situation continues to be a challenge for the Catholic Church, which remains firm in their work of help and accompaniment to those who leave their countries in search of a better future.
This year, the concern is accentuated with the beginning of the new Donald Trump government in the United States, who signed executive orders on immigration.
The Mexican bishops reaffirmed their commitment to welcome migrants who cross the national territory and those who are returned, offering them refuge, food, attention to their physical, emotional and spiritual health, support to contact their families, obtain documentation and legal advice.
In this context, the role that bishops and clergy can exercise as pressure agents in the defense of migrants’ rights and in the promotion of social projects that favor their integration will be important.
A prominent example is the educational project launched by the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, in Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala, aimed at migrant and displaced minors residing in shelters managed by the Catholic Church.
3. Stop the culture of death
In the last six years, Mexico has registered a significant advance in the decriminalization of abortion, and already 12 of the 32 federative entities have approved laws that allow it freely until 12 or 13 weeks of gestation.
Only in the first 100 days of the Government of Claudia Sheinbaum – whose administration began on October 1, 2024 -, the local congresses of Jalisco, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, State of Mexico, Chiapas and Nayarit have decriminalized abortion until the 12 weeks of gestation.
Anaís Burgos Hernández, president of the Gender Equality Commission of the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union – the Federal Bicameral Legal Body of Mexico -, pointed out Recently, the decriminalization of abortion throughout the country will be a legislative priority.
Currently, there are pending voting initiatives in the local congresses of Querétaro, Guanajuato and Tlaxcala.
Meanwhile, in Mexico City – the first federative entity that decriminalized abortion at request until 12 weeks of pregnancy, in 2007 – proposals are discussed to allow abortion throughout pregnancy.
For the Catholic Church it will be crucial to prevent abortion from moving forward, counteract its impact on the states where it has already been implemented, and work together with civil society in projects that offer real alternatives of support to women.
4. Changes in the episcopate
This year it could bring significant changes in the episcopal geography of Mexico, since several bishops will turn 75, the age in which they must present their resignation to the Pope, according to the Code of Canon Law.
Among them are Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, Archbishop of Guadalajara, who reached the age of 75 in March 2024, and Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, Archbishop Primado de México, who fulfilled that age on the 9th of January this year.
These venues, considered two of the most important in the country – and often cardinals – arouse great expectations about who could be the prelates that happen in their leadership.
On the other hand, the Archdiocese of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, continues as vacancy, and the appointment of a new archbishop is expected during the year.
Among other prelates that will reach the age of resignation are Mons. Leopoldo González González, Archbishop of Acapulco; Mons. Víctor Sánchez Espinosa, Archbishop of Puebla; and Mons. Pedro Vázquez Villalobos, Archbishop of Antequera Oaxaca.
Commenting on the presentation of his resignation to Pope Francis, Cardinal Robles said that “it is healthy to renew episcopal life, that more forces come, more youth, more energy.”
5. Preparation for the Guadalupano event
In 2031 the 500 years of the appearances of the Virgin of Guadalupe will be commemorated, whom San Pío X proclaimed as Patroness and Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas and the Philippines.
The CEM launched in 2018 the Global Pastoral Project 2031+2033, A document that draws pastoral objectives and proposals with the vision of building “the dream of church and country that we want to be”.
On the occasion of the half millennium of the “Guadalupano event”, the bishops of Mexico launched the Ninth Intercontinental Guadalupana, an initiative that aims to promote the encounter with God through Santa María de Guadalupe, opening new paths for the social and ecclesial reconstruction of The communities.
This novena will focus on five lines of action: continuous training on the Guadalupano event, comprehensive research, promotion of an informed and testimonized devotion, mass dissemination of the event and creative production.
This year will represent a key opportunity to evaluate the advances achieved in the projects delineated towards this goal.
6. The “vocational winter”
The latest official figures in Mexico, provided by the National Observatory of the Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM), indicate that in 2017 15,716 priests were recorded, including diocesans, religious and not professors. For 2019, the figure decreased to 14,600.
According to Fr. Octavio Pérez Ramírez, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Vocations and Ministries (CEVym) of the Mexican Episcopate Conference, the Catholic Church in the country is going through a “vocational winter.”
In an interview with ACI Press, the priest explained that one of the main factors that contribute to this decrease is that “young people are not evangelized, which makes it difficult to respond to a specific vocational call.”
To reverse this situation, he said that he is working with a Evangelizer – Vocational itinerary With a strategy focused on strengthening the training “from catechesis, and, above all, from the family”, with a view to increasing the number of vocations in the coming years.
Diego López Colín
I am a graduate of journalism at the Carlos Septién García school with experience of religious institutional communication. Since 2016 I write for digital media and, since 2018, I report the most important news about the Catholic event in Mexico for the Ewtn news channel. ACI Press correspondent in Mexico since 2023.