SÃO PAULO, Brazil – Amid a growing wave of violence, the Mexican Church prepares for a new phase of its National Dialogue for Peace, which will happen in the city of Guadalajara between Jan. 31-Feb. 1.

The idea is to gather authorities, members of the police, nongovernmental organizations and scholars in order to discuss methodologies against violence that proved to be successful at the local level, in institutions like schools and companies.

According to Jesuit Father Jorge Atilano, who heads the initiative, the Dialogue had different stages since it was launched in 2023. On that occasion, it was an answer to the murder of two Jesuits priests – Joaquín Mora and Javier Campos – in their parish in Chihuahua State in June of 2022.

“The first step was to boost a national agenda for peace. After that, commitments for peace were signed by presidential candidates, government officials and many other actors. In the next stage, their implementation began. Now, we’ll discuss them and share the most effective actions,” Atilano told Crux.

The roadmap for peace developed throughout the process includes several strategic axes involving topics like education and the re-composition of the social fabric. They’re all necessary interventions whose concrete results, however, will take long to appear.

“At the same time, violence keeps shocking the country. Extortion has been growing in many territories dominated by criminal groups,” Atilano observed.

In fact, the seriousness of the violence crisis has been leading many Mexicans to demand quick solutions, while the whole situation is complex and obviously requires long-term transformations.

Violence has been so omnipresent in Mexico that the Church has felt its impact on numerous occasions. Both laypeople and members of the clergy were victimized.

“In the space of one year, three priests were killed,” Atilano recalled.

Father Marcelo Pérez was killed in October of 2024, when an unknown man shot at his car after Mass, in Chiapas State. The shooter was charged and underwent trial, being convicted. But the mastermind behind the murder has never been identified.

Pérez was involved in the struggle to protect the environment and Indigenous communities, something that attracted the hatred of powerful local leaders and criminal gangs. He had been under threat for a long time.

More recently, two other priests were killed. Father Bertoldo Pantaleón, who went missing on Oct. 4 in Guerrero State, was found dead two days later. An old acquaintance of his was charged with taking part in his murder.

On Nov. 11, Father Ernesto Hernández’s dead body was found in a sewage ditch in the State of México. He had disappeared more than 10 days earlier.

According to the police, Hernández met with a female escort on Oct. 29 and went with her to the house of a man. There they spent a few hours drinking and using drugs, till he was killed. Three people were detained in connection to the crime.

Among laypeople, the most shocking case occurred in May in Guanajuato, when 8 young boys and ladies were killed during a party. Many of them were active members of their parish and of ecclesial movements.

“All those crimes further motivate us to keep our movement of peace going. The indignation gives us strength to go forward,” Atilano said.

In October, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) released its 2024 annual report.  Mexico appeared among the most dangerous nations in the world for religious leaders.

The document showed that 10 priests were killed during the 6 years of government of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024). Other 10 priests suffered some kind of violence, while 900 were victims of extortion.

The report also mentions the killing of two catechists in 2023 and of an altarboy and his brother during a shooting in front of a Church in 2024.

According to the Multimedia Catholic Center, which monitors violence against the Church, 60 priests were killed in Mexico between 1990-2024, including a cardinal. Twenty lay people and religious brothers and sisters were also murdered in that period.

Julieta Appendini, Director of ACN Mexico, told Crux that it is the country with the highest number of murdered priests in the world.

“The lack of religious freedom in Mexico is not the fruit of State persecution, for instance, but of crime. Without Justice being served, crime ends up limiting religious freedom,” she said.

Appendini said that priests are community leaders who tend to stabilize society. Criminal groups usually target people who have great influence over the community they want to dominate.

“Priests are people who disturb their plans,” she argued.

They can also serve as an example, she added.

“When a regular citizen sees that a priest was killed, he or she thinks: ‘If they did that to a person with such a moral weight, what can they do to me?’,” said Appendini.

While priests and lay leaders can make mistakes and get involved with wrong people, in most cases that is not what happens. However, powerful local groups many times calumniate a killed priest, accusing him of being involved in crime.

“That’s a way of impeding an investigation to go on. Father Marcelo Pérez was murdered one year ago, and Justice hasn’t been served yet,” she said.

Father José Filiberto Velásquez, who heads Minerva Bello Center of Human Rights in Guerrero State, has himself been threatened and attacked in the past. In 2023, his car was shot by criminals.

“Many territories in Mexico are under control of criminal organizations. That’s dangerous for everybody. For priests it’s even worse because they’re always moving and can have a bad encounter,” he told Crux.

Velásquez thinks that the National Dialogue for Peace has been following the right path, using educational methodologies to raise awareness against violence.

“That’s a crisis with multiple causes and it can’t be rapidly solved. The answers provided by the National Dialogue for Peace will come in the long term,” he said.

Atilano said that since the Dialogue was launched 300 mayors signed their commitment to peace and 250 projects involving education of children and classes for families and schools regarding peace building have been developed.

“Many connections between the Church and businessmen, social movements, families of missing people and so on have been made as well,” the priest added.

For Atilano, “it’s an educational process.”

“We have to discuss alternatives for the current situation,” he said.