Mons. José de Jesús González, Bishop of Chilpancingo-Chilapa in Guerrero (Mexico), regrets that the region in which its episcopal ministry displays for that it was installed in April 2022 is a “state kidnapped” by organized crime, but this does not stop its pastoral work: “Prayer makes us brave to enter the fray”.
In collected statements For the Mexican headquarters of the Pontifical Foundation, it helps the Church in need (ACN), Mons. González said that in the midst of the violence unleashed in the state, with criminal groups controlling the roads, extorting entrepreneurs and causing disappearances and murders, the Catholic Church is considered “the only voice that can speak for the people”.
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Although the fear moved by the violence of criminals also lurks the clergy, the prelate ensures that “if we are not brave, the people cry … And God cries.”
Guerrero, the “kidnapped state”
Guerrero, in southwest Mexico, has been one of the regions most affected by organized crime for decades.
According to Mexico Peace Index 2025prepared by the Institute for Economy and Peace, Guerrero is the ninth most violent state in the country. Acapulco, a town with one of the best known beaches of the American continent, appears in the report in 7 of the municipalities with the highest homicide rates in Mexico.
According to him “Narcomapa de México” Prepared by the Millennium newspaper, in Guerrero, more than 24 criminal groups face for the control of the territory, including the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel, Los Rojos, the new Michoacan family, United Warriors and the faction of “Los Chapitos” – children of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán – of the Sinaloa Cartel.
In it list Of the 50 most violent cities in the world during 2024, Acapulco occupies third position. Chilpancingo, the state capital and episcopal headquarters of the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, occupies the place 28.
A bishop who has known first -hand violence
In his statements to ACN, Mons. González recalled that he during his episcopal ministry has been face to face with the criminals, who almost ended his life during confusing attack.
11 months after he was ordered Bishop, in May 2010, criminals “were shot” when they moved along with two other priests in a truck. “They shot at the head, not the tires,” he recalled.
“When they saw that we were priests, they apologized. They offered me to pay the broken crystals, but the important thing is that they did not send us’ to the other side, with San Pedro,” he said, taking up a story that he shared long ago, when he attributed to have survived the protection of the Virgin Mary.
On that occasion, the criminals after apologizing also requested his blessing. From that difficult situation, the prelate extracts a lesson that then learned: “These are also my children even if they are disoriented.”
If Jesus “died of love for me, I must die of love for others,” said Chilpancingo-Chilapa bishop. “And that ‘the others’ includes everyone, even the executioners.”
Mons. González also had close words for seeking mothers, as buses of mothers and family members are known – in most cases without support from the authorities – their disappeared loved ones in the midst of the violence suffered by the country. According to Figures from the Ministry of the Interior from Mexico, from 1952 to date 133,677 people are missing and not located in the country.
The seeking mothers, said the Mexican bishop, “want to feel part of the church, protected. They cannot be alone in front of the wolf that devours them.”
The prelate also requested prayers: “Rehend for us. God does not abandon us, but we need his closeness to move forward.”
“Prayer makes us brave to enter the fray,” he said.
David Ramos
Graduate in Communication Sciences by the Private University of the North in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working in ACI Press, I am based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered the trips of Pope Francis to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.