The Catholic Church undertakes 300 actions to reduce violence in Mexico

In the midst of a wave of violence that has shaken Mexico, recently marked by the murder of two senior officials in the capital, the Catholic Church redoubles its efforts to rebuild peace.

Through the National Dialogue for Peace and more than 300 initiatives throughout the country, bishops, priests and laity work in the formation of mediators, mental health care and accompaniment to victims, assuming risks and betting on hope, even though, as the ecclesial leaders themselves warn, “with organized crime you cannot dialogue.”

The bishops of Mexico, together with various organizations, launched the initiative of the National Dialogue for Peace after the murder in 2022 of the Jesuit priests Javier Campos and Joaquín Mora. While there were already several actions promoted by the Catholic Church in the country, with this proposal it was sought to articulate and strengthen all those efforts.

According to him website From the National Dialogue for Peace, for a year and a half the voices of various realities in the country were collected. From this process, the National Peace Agenda was developed, which resulted in concrete commitments. Currently, actions are being implemented at the local, state and national levels “to project a viable and shared future.”

Action for the peace of the Catholic Church

At a press conference this Wednesday in Mexico City, Fr. Jorge Atilano González SJ, executive director of the National Dialogue for Peace, told ACI Press that around 300 initiatives are being carried out to reduce violence in the country.

He said, for example, that in the Sierra Tarahumara, in the north of the country, “the issue of mental health in young people and indigenous families is working.

In Oaxaca, he continued, “working on the formation of mediators” of conflicts; While in Monterrey, Nuevo León, works on a “diagnosis of the mental health situation in high school students, to prepare proposals for how to address this situation”, among other proposals.

“Here in Mexico City, it is in dialogue with the mayors to favor both social fabric reconstruction processes, addiction attention and the theme of reintegration of people who leave prison. They are examples of what the Church is doing,” said the Jesuit priest.

All proposals can be consulted on the website of the National Dialogue for Peace, which details that these 300 actions are divided into 14 national and 7 national initiatives throughout the country.

During the conference, Fr. Atilano stressed that, despite the danger that this represents for the members of the Catholic Church who start these projects, “we assume the risk of being close to the communities, of accompanying and working to build the community, to build the family so that we have bases that allow to recover peace in the country.”

“With organized crime you cannot dialogue”

In the same conference, Mons. Javier Acero Oar, auxiliary bishop of the primed archdiocese of Mexico, made an urgent call to the entire society to “work with community, closeness, listening and concrete actions from the heart of the Gospel” to promote peace.

This exhortation occurs in an alarming context: only between January and March 2025, at least 1,321 were committed in the country “crimes of extreme violence that can be classified as atrocities,” according to the study Horror Gallery: Atrocities and high -impact events recorded in journalistic mediacarried out by the organization cause in common.

Faced with this reality, the bishop urged parishes and communities to “generate spaces for meeting, listening, training for nonviolence, accompaniment to victims and prevention programs.”

Asked about whether bishops or priests from Mexico City seek to meet with organized crime groups as a method of lowering criminal indices, Mons. Steel pointed out that “with organized crime you cannot dialogue. When there is blood in between, it will not be dialogue.”

However, he said: “We mediate. To stop killing, I will wear and we will put on the bishops of knees. But from here we tell them: ‘Enough. They stop killing, leave the population alone.”

“We are going to mediate for the people of God, but we are not going to give up with lead in hand. We want echoes of peace and love, not lead echoes,” added the prelate.