The Catholic Church made a special call so that this Christmas, the day when the birth of Jesus is celebrated, “peace reigns” throughout Mexico, especially in the state of Sinaloa. In the midst of a wave of violence, ask God that “the tenderness of this child who is born caresses our hearts.”
In a message broadcast this December 18, Bishop Jesús José Herrera Quiñones, Bishop of the Diocese of Culiacán, Sinaloa, stated that “Christmas is Jesus and a holiday for those who believe that peace is possible.”
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This call comes in a context of growing insecurity in Sinaloa, where shootings, fires and vehicle thefts have been reported since September, attributed to internal disputes between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The clashes, involving the children of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and followers of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, intensified after the arrest of both in El Paso, Texas (United States) at the end of July. According to Zambada in a letterwas the victim of “an ambush” before being transferred to the United States.
Since then, the clashes have left 507 intentional homicides between September and November, almost equaling the 566 registered in all of 2023, according to the Attorney General’s Office of Sinaloa.
“Although we live in difficult times, complicated times,” continued Bishop Herrera Quiñónez, “it is not easy, but God does not stop showing us his mercy, his love.”
The bishop stressed that by contemplating the Child Jesus, Christians can find “certain hope, to once again have a new heart and with that new heart we will be able to enter as pilgrims of hope in the year 2025”, the year in which the Ordinary Jubilee of Hope in the Vatican.
Bishop Herrera Quiñónez urged each believer to promote peace, highlighting that “building it and working for it is not easy nor is it comfortable, that is why we need to ask Jesus, King of Peace, to be born in our hearts.”
The bishop also stressed that this Christmas is an opportunity to create “paths of peace with our words, with our actions, despite so much violence, despite so much disorder, so many conflicts that we experience.”
Finally, he recalled that in Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, “darkness made light, that in Bethlehem the impossible begins to be possible.” “Christmas is the day of love that is born, of love that calls, of love that demands, of love that saves,” concluded Bishop Herrera Quiñónez.
Diego López Colin
I am a graduate of Journalism at the Carlos Septién García School with experience in religious institutional communication. Since 2016 I have been writing for digital media and, since 2018, I have reported the most important news about Catholic events in Mexico for the EWTN news channel. ACI Prensa correspondent in Mexico since 2023.