Mexican activists urged to ‘sow seeds of peace’

A Church-sponsored conference in Guadalajara brought together more than 1,000 activists and concerned citizens from across Mexico to discuss efforts to stem widespread violence and rights abuses.

The three-day National Dialogue for Peace met in early February at ITESO, The Jesuit University of Gualalajara. It was the second conference held as part of a movement launched by the Jesuits’ Mexican province in 2022 with the support of the local Catholic hierarchy following the murder of two Jesuit priests that year in Chihuahua.  It forms part of the Church’s wider “national peace agenda”.

The Archbishop of Guadalajara Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega attended the conference, as did Bishop Hector Perez Villarreal, an auxiliary in the Archdiocese of Mexico City who is secretary general of the Mexican bishops’ conference. The president of the Conference of Major Superiors of Mexican Religious Orders and the provincial general of the Jesuits in Mexico also attended.

Cardinal Robles told the assembled community leaders, advocates for social justice and human rights, educators, youth workers, leaders of various religions and representatives of Mexico’s private sector to “sow seeds of peace in every corner of the country, from the family, the street, the school, the neighbourhood and the workplace”.

Bishop Perez said the National Dialogue for Peace conference was “an act of collective hope in a country that seems to have normalised corruption, lies, and violence”. He continued: “We want to say clearly and loudly, only the truth, only the restoration of justice, only reconciliation will bring us peace, and in this task, we will all be involved.”

A crisis of kidnappings, disappearances and other criminal violence that has left over 30,000 people dead in Mexico each year since 2018. Gangs and drug cartels perpetrate most of this violence, but the state has also committed human rights violations while fighting these groups.  More than 80 priests and seminarians have been killed in targeted murders over the past three decades.

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