David Agren

The Sept. 26, 2014, attack on the students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, a rural teachers college for young men, shocked Mexico, which had become seemingly inured to grizzly stories of drug cartel violence. Ten years later, the case remains in the realm of impunity, despite widespread societal outrage, parental searches and Mexican and international investigations.

The Diocese of Chiclayo denied the accusations of a coverup, saying in a Sept. 10 statement the victims were personally attended to by the then-bishop, Cardinal Robert Prevost — now prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops — in April 2022. Their accusations and the findings of a local investigation, the diocese said, were sent to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which investigates accusations of clerical sexual abuse, in July 2022. The Vatican investigation found insufficient evidence, according to the diocese.
 

Mexico's outgoing president has compared himself to St. Francis of Assisi, highlighting his personal parsimony as a calling card in a country notorious for corrupt politics — while overlooking his own willingness to welcome politicians with checkered records into his political party.

In a homily celebrated Aug. 20 in Panama City for a meeting of bishops and migration pastoral agents, Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told participants, "Pope Francis says that our first two duties toward migrants is to welcome them and protect them."

The Nicaraguan government has extinguished the legal status of more than 25 Catholic organizations, including religious orders such as the Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians, another diocesan Caritas chapter, and lay Catholic groups, as part of an attack on civil society with the closure of 1,500 nongovernmental organizations.

Nicaragua has revoked the legal status of the Caritas chapter in the Diocese of Matagalpa and continued arresting priests and laity there, delivering another blow to a diocese decimated by the detentions and expulsions of clergy and the exile of its bishop to the Vatican.

Venezuela's two most senior clergy warned that harassment of priests from pro-government politicians has the country following in the footsteps of Nicaragua, where democracy has disappeared and the church is persecuted.

Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer in exile who tracks persecution of the Catholic Church, shared figures with OSV News showing 70 priests were serving the diocese — 57 Nicaraguans and 13 foreigners — prior to the regime's attacks on the church. Just 22 priests remain to cover a diocese of 615,858 Catholics and 29 parishes. Four of the priests died; two have retired, but continue to celebrate the sacraments; five were "kidnapped," while three are missing. Thirty of the priests were forced into exile.

Pope Francis has designated the provincial city of Santiago del Estero as Argentina's primatial see in a move described by Catholic leaders as a historic "reparation" and a reflection of his preference for putting the peripheries at the center of church attention.

Hundreds of Mexicans have fled drug cartel violence in southern Chiapas state to neighboring Guatemala, causing the bishop of a Mexico border diocese to ask local authorities: "How long will they live trying to hide a sad and painful reality that we carry day by day?" The trend is a reversal of past decades, when Indigenous Guatemalans fleeing genocide and civil war sought shelter in Mexico.

The Bolivia province of the Society of Jesus failed to follow instructions from the Jesuit curia in Rome by allegedly not publicly disclosing the findings of an investigation into a pedophile priest, deepening a series of clerical sexual abuse scandals engulfing the order in the South American country.

The Nicaraguan government closed the country's most prominent Catholic radio station as the Sandinista regime continues to persecute the church and increasingly infringe on citizens' religious freedom and the ability to worship.

Mexico's Interior Ministry has requested the participation of priests in courses promoting "civic values" in the aftermath of the ruling Morena party's massive electoral victory and disquiet from the country's episcopal conference over social peace in the deeply divided country.

Catholic groups working with migrants traversing the treacherous Darién Gap have expressed skepticism over a joint U.S.-Panama plan to deport people passing through the thick jungle between Colombia and Panama on journeys toward the U.S. border. The groups called for governments to attend to the needs of migrants instead and deal with issues such as organized crime, which controls access to the Darién Gap. They also argue that migrants are not easily deterred, making it likely they would seek out new but risky routes instead.

Mexican authorities recently rescued 13 kidnapped migrants from a Ciudad Juárez stash house, where the captives "were beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted and extorted for additional smuggling fees by members of a transnational criminal organization."

Jesuit Father Luis María Roma wrote in a diary of abusing girls, whom he often lured to a river and photographed inappropriately, according to the Spanish newspaper El País. The Jesuit province in Bolivia compiled a report on Father Roma's acts in 2019, but withheld it from prosecutors, according to El País, which obtained a copy of the priest's diary and the Jesuit's investigation.

Mexico's bishops congratulated Claudia Sheinbaum, who overwhelmingly won Mexico's presidential election to become the country's first female president — a historic accomplishment overshadowed by the killing of candidates and questions over the future of the country's democratic institutions.
 

Archbishop Gabriel Mestre of La Plata has resigned unexpectedly after only eight months in the Argentine archdiocese previously headed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, provoking a crisis in church governance in the South American country.

Bishops in Mexico's southern Chiapas state have warned that conditions for holding elections are lacking after the May 12 massacre of 11 people — including two catechists — as drug cartels dispute territories and continue killing candidates ahead of the June 2 vote.