Politics and the Catholic Mass

Tales of 2 Countries:

and profane sacraments.

I'm certain that most Canadians read about the recent controversy involving a report about Stephen Harper and the "alleged pocketing" of Holy Communion during the funeral mass for the Right Honourable former Governor General Romeo LeBlanc. It had serious consequences for the New Brunswick newspaper St. John Telegraph-Journal—including the resignation of a scion of the powerful Irving family clan from the newspaper and an extremely rare front-page apology to the Prime Minister. (picture above from Milenio.com )

Meanwhile, in Mexico, the Mexican SSP working hand in hand with the American DEA raided a Michoacan church during Mass and held everyone at gunpoint. The action is being defended by the government and it has advanced arguments that there was special protection or tradition limits the use of such force. It did lead to 33 arrests, including that of a big fish nicknamed "La Troca" (Truck) who allegedly is the capo in charge of the largest export of synthetic drugs to the United States.

Here's an English language report of what happened last Saturday evening (August 1, 2009) during a mass to celebrate "la quinceañera" of a parishioner's family in the state of Michoacán Mexico. The federal security forces were looking for leaders of one of the 8 cartels currently involved in a bloody battle with the government and with each other. La Familia de Michoacan is a very strange group of drug dealers who specialize in supplying amphetamines and other synthetic drugs like crystal to the United States and to the Federal District. Their leaders have a messianic "bent" and have distributed documents that are treated like "revelations from god". The group became prominent and burst onto the scene when it threw 5 decapitated heads into a bar in Morelia two years ago.

Two weeks ago, it unleashed a wave of terror across Michoacan after one of its chief leaders ("la Tuta") was arrested. They targeted police and executed 16 in a few days, including 12 at one time. Their bodies were dumped in a pile beside a major highway in the State.

http://www.catholicreview.org/subpages/storyworldnew-new.aspx?action=6646

Mexican bishops criticize federal police for drug raid during Mass

By David Agren Catholic News Service MEXICO CITY – The Mexican Catholic bishops’ conference has criticized federal police for bursting into a Mass in Mexico’s western Michoacan state to apprehend an alleged drug-cartel lieutenant. “We make an energetic protest against the lack of respect and the violence exercised on the part of the forces responsible for guaranteeing the security of all persons in our nation - principally in the state of Michoacan - by interrupting a religious act ... at the moment in which holy Mass is celebrated,” the bishops said in an Aug. 3 statement signed by Auxiliary Bishop Jose Gonzalez Gonzalez of Guadalajara, conference secretary-general. “Nothing explains this kind of action inside a religious place and much less in these moments where Mexico is noted internationally as an insecure and violent country,” the bishops said. The Aug. 1 raid marked the first time that police officers have burst into a parish to arrest suspects linked to organized crime, said Father Mateo Calvillo Paz, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Morelia, which is in Michoacan. The raid also highlighted the increasing vulnerability of church officials and the faithful of being caught up - inadvertently or not - in the ongoing federal crackdown on drug cartels. The raid continued a high-profile crackdown on a cartel known as La Familia Michoacana in President Felipe Calderon’s home state, where some 5,500 federal police and soldiers have been dispatched to fight organized crime. By the end of July, violence from organized crime had claimed more than 250 lives in Michoacan and more than 3,500 lives nationwide, according to the newspaper Reforma. Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Security announced Aug. 3 that federal police officers arrested 33 alleged La Familia members in the raid. The detainees include Miguel Beraza Villa - known as “La Troca” (the Truck) - a cartel lieutenant that Mexican and U.S. authorities allege was responsible for transporting tractor-trailers full of synthetic drugs such as “ice” and “crystal” from the cartel’s clandestine laboratories to the United States via Tijuana, Mexico. Federal police, arriving in armored vehicles and accompanied by two Black Hawk helicopters, raided Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Apatzingan Aug. 1, interrupting a Mass being celebrated in advance of a quinceanera. Local media reported that an estimated 250 attendees and the priest - identified as Father Vicente Soto by the Michoacan news agency Quadratin - were held in the parish for six hours. Media photos of the parish showed dislodged furniture and other minor damage to property. Attempts to reach Father Soto through the Diocese of Apatzingan were unsuccessful. The Secretariat of Public Security said $13,000, 11 luxury vehicles, two assault rifles, 13 fragment grenades and 30 cellular phones were seized. It is uncertain whether any of the weapons were seized inside the parish. Attempts to reach a public security spokesman were unsuccessful. Father Calvillo said police “took advantage of the Mass to assault a large number of ‘narcos’“ and avoid bloodshed, but showed ignorance of the importance of the Mass. Mexico’s bishops, he added, “have rejected all types of protection or calls for arming themselves. It would be a false testimony.” The threat to the well-being of prelates due to the increase in organized crime violence has been the source of some disagreement within the church. Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico City, told reporters in July that three bishops in Michoacan had been threatened, but both Father Calvillo and a spokesman for the Diocese of Tacambaro told Catholic News Service that the statement was false. Both the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency lauded the Aug. 1 arrests as key accomplishments in Calderon’s battle against organized crime. Security expert Pedro Isnardo de la Cruz of the National Autonomous University of Mexico said La Familia has shown a surprising resilience that “reflects poorly” on the president’s war on organized crime, has demonstrated a “great ability to corrupt” local governments, and also appears to be receiving financing from unknown sources beyond Mexico. Aug 4, 2009