{"id":14146,"date":"2016-05-11T00:08:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-11T00:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope-80238\/"},"modified":"2016-05-11T00:08:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-11T00:08:00","slug":"end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"End the violence, seek God&#8217;s peace &ndash; a Mexican bishop calls for hope"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Gun_Credit_Kirill_Demchenko_via_wwwshutterstockcom_CNA_1_7_16.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Irapuato, Mexico, May 10, 2016 \/ 06:08 pm (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- A Mexican bishop is seeking answers after recent attacks on Catholic churches and priests, and years of high murder rates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe solution lies in changing people\u2019s hearts, and in making peace to really be peace with God and with your brothers and sisters, otherwise we shouldn\u2019t expect a good future,\u201d Bishop Jos\u00e9 de Jes\u00fas Mart\u00ednez Zepeda of Irapuato said in a recent interview with the Mexican weekly Desde la Fe.<\/p>\n<p>According to Mexico\u2019s National Institute for Statistics and Geography, between 2007 and 2014 there were 164,345 reported homicides in the country. The period includes some of the bloodiest years of fighting between the drug cartels and the Mexican government, following the beginning of a \u201cwar on drugs\u201d begun in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Such violence came home to Irapuato last month. On April 26, four armed men assaulted Fr. Efren Silva while he was in the sacristy of Lord of Mercy parish in Irapuato's Lazaro Cardenas neighborhood, stealing nearly $400.<\/p>\n<p>Bishop Mart\u00ednez lamented the crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe robbers came in, tied him up and roughed him up so he would tell them where the money was. In reality, it's a very poor parish, when the money comes in and goes out on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The prelate said this is not an isolated incident. He recently learned of a priest from Salamanca who had been attacked by some robbers. They \u201cstruck him on the forehead, inflicting such a wound that he had to go to a medical center to get stitches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope these incidents will soon stop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, three priests were murdered in Mexico, according to the Investigation Unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center.<\/p>\n<p>Bishop Mart\u00ednez told the faithful that there is no reason to lose hope, for \u201cChrist has risen, the tomb is empty; we need to work so that the Resurrection of Christ encompasses our society.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=w7VQ_ucjViY:YeawBK5JjTk:yIl2AUoC8zA\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/w7VQ_ucjViY\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Gun_Credit_Kirill_Demchenko_via_wwwshutterstockcom_CNA_1_7_16.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Irapuato, Mexico, May 10, 2016 \/ 06:08 pm (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" target=\"_self\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- A Mexican bishop is seeking answers after recent attacks on Catholic churches and priests, and years of high murder rates.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The solution lies in changing people&rsquo;s hearts, and in making peace to really be peace with God and with your brothers and sisters, otherwise we shouldn&rsquo;t expect a good future,&rdquo; Bishop Jos&eacute; de Jes&uacute;s Mart&iacute;nez Zepeda of Irapuato said in a recent interview with the Mexican weekly Desde la Fe.<\/p>\n<p>According to Mexico&rsquo;s National Institute for Statistics and Geography, between 2007 and 2014 there were 164,345 reported homicides in the country. The period includes some of the bloodiest years of fighting between the drug cartels and the Mexican government, following the beginning of a &ldquo;war on drugs&rdquo; begun in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Such violence came home to Irapuato last month. On April 26, four armed men assaulted Fr. Efren Silva while he was in the sacristy of Lord of Mercy parish in Irapuato&#8217;s Lazaro Cardenas neighborhood, stealing nearly $400.<\/p>\n<p>Bishop Mart&iacute;nez lamented the crime.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The robbers came in, tied him up and roughed him up so he would tell them where the money was. In reality, it&#8217;s a very poor parish, when the money comes in and goes out on a daily basis.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The prelate said this is not an isolated incident. He recently learned of a priest from Salamanca who had been attacked by some robbers. They &ldquo;struck him on the forehead, inflicting such a wound that he had to go to a medical center to get stitches.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We hope these incidents will soon stop,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, three priests were murdered in Mexico, according to the Investigation Unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center.<\/p>\n<p>Bishop Mart&iacute;nez told the faithful that there is no reason to lose hope, for &ldquo;Christ has risen, the tomb is empty; we need to work so that the Resurrection of Christ encompasses our society.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=w7VQ_ucjViY:YeawBK5JjTk:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/w7VQ_ucjViY\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>End the violence, seek God&#039;s peace &ndash; a Mexican bishop calls for hope<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Irapuato, Mexico, May 10, 2016 \/ 06:08 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A Mexican bishop is seeking answers after recent attacks on Catholic churches and priests, and years of high murder rates. &ldquo;The solution lies in changing people&rsquo;s hearts, and in making peace to really be peace with God and with your brothers and sisters, otherwise we shouldn&rsquo;t expect a good future,&rdquo; Bishop Jos&eacute; de Jes&uacute;s Mart&iacute;nez Zepeda of Irapuato said in a recent interview with the Mexican weekly Desde la Fe. According to Mexico&rsquo;s National Institute for Statistics and Geography, between 2007 and 2014 there were 164,345 reported homicides in the country. The period includes some of the bloodiest years of fighting between the drug cartels and the Mexican government, following the beginning of a &ldquo;war on drugs&rdquo; begun in 2006. Such violence came home to Irapuato last month. On April 26, four armed men assaulted Fr. Efren Silva while he was in the sacristy of Lord of Mercy parish in Irapuato&#039;s Lazaro Cardenas neighborhood, stealing nearly $400. Bishop Mart&iacute;nez lamented the crime. &ldquo;The robbers came in, tied him up and roughed him up so he would tell them where the money was. In reality, it&#039;s a very poor parish, when the money comes in and goes out on a daily basis.&rdquo; The prelate said this is not an isolated incident. He recently learned of a priest from Salamanca who had been attacked by some robbers. They &ldquo;struck him on the forehead, inflicting such a wound that he had to go to a medical center to get stitches.&rdquo; &ldquo;We hope these incidents will soon stop,&rdquo; he said. In 2015, three priests were murdered in Mexico, according to the Investigation Unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center. Bishop Mart&iacute;nez told the faithful that there is no reason to lose hope, for &ldquo;Christ has risen, the tomb is empty; we need to work so that the Resurrection of Christ encompasses our society.&rdquo;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"End the violence, seek God&#039;s peace &ndash; a Mexican bishop calls for hope\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Irapuato, Mexico, May 10, 2016 \/ 06:08 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A Mexican bishop is seeking answers after recent attacks on Catholic churches and priests, and years of high murder rates. &ldquo;The solution lies in changing people&rsquo;s hearts, and in making peace to really be peace with God and with your brothers and sisters, otherwise we shouldn&rsquo;t expect a good future,&rdquo; Bishop Jos&eacute; de Jes&uacute;s Mart&iacute;nez Zepeda of Irapuato said in a recent interview with the Mexican weekly Desde la Fe. According to Mexico&rsquo;s National Institute for Statistics and Geography, between 2007 and 2014 there were 164,345 reported homicides in the country. The period includes some of the bloodiest years of fighting between the drug cartels and the Mexican government, following the beginning of a &ldquo;war on drugs&rdquo; begun in 2006. Such violence came home to Irapuato last month. On April 26, four armed men assaulted Fr. Efren Silva while he was in the sacristy of Lord of Mercy parish in Irapuato&#039;s Lazaro Cardenas neighborhood, stealing nearly $400. Bishop Mart&iacute;nez lamented the crime. &ldquo;The robbers came in, tied him up and roughed him up so he would tell them where the money was. In reality, it&#039;s a very poor parish, when the money comes in and goes out on a daily basis.&rdquo; The prelate said this is not an isolated incident. He recently learned of a priest from Salamanca who had been attacked by some robbers. They &ldquo;struck him on the forehead, inflicting such a wound that he had to go to a medical center to get stitches.&rdquo; &ldquo;We hope these incidents will soon stop,&rdquo; he said. In 2015, three priests were murdered in Mexico, according to the Investigation Unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center. Bishop Mart&iacute;nez told the faithful that there is no reason to lose hope, for &ldquo;Christ has risen, the tomb is empty; we need to work so that the Resurrection of Christ encompasses our society.&rdquo;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-11T00:08:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Gun_Credit_Kirill_Demchenko_via_wwwshutterstockcom_CNA_1_7_16.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/\",\"name\":\"End the violence, seek God's peace &ndash; a Mexican bishop calls for hope\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-11T00:08:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-11T00:08:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Irapuato, Mexico, May 10, 2016 \/ 06:08 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A Mexican bishop is seeking answers after recent attacks on Catholic churches and priests, and years of high murder rates. &ldquo;The solution lies in changing people&rsquo;s hearts, and in making peace to really be peace with God and with your brothers and sisters, otherwise we shouldn&rsquo;t expect a good future,&rdquo; Bishop Jos&eacute; de Jes&uacute;s Mart&iacute;nez Zepeda of Irapuato said in a recent interview with the Mexican weekly Desde la Fe. According to Mexico&rsquo;s National Institute for Statistics and Geography, between 2007 and 2014 there were 164,345 reported homicides in the country. The period includes some of the bloodiest years of fighting between the drug cartels and the Mexican government, following the beginning of a &ldquo;war on drugs&rdquo; begun in 2006. Such violence came home to Irapuato last month. On April 26, four armed men assaulted Fr. Efren Silva while he was in the sacristy of Lord of Mercy parish in Irapuato's Lazaro Cardenas neighborhood, stealing nearly $400. Bishop Mart&iacute;nez lamented the crime. &ldquo;The robbers came in, tied him up and roughed him up so he would tell them where the money was. In reality, it's a very poor parish, when the money comes in and goes out on a daily basis.&rdquo; The prelate said this is not an isolated incident. He recently learned of a priest from Salamanca who had been attacked by some robbers. They &ldquo;struck him on the forehead, inflicting such a wound that he had to go to a medical center to get stitches.&rdquo; &ldquo;We hope these incidents will soon stop,&rdquo; he said. In 2015, three priests were murdered in Mexico, according to the Investigation Unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center. Bishop Mart&iacute;nez told the faithful that there is no reason to lose hope, for &ldquo;Christ has risen, the tomb is empty; we need to work so that the Resurrection of Christ encompasses our society.&rdquo;\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"End the violence, seek God&#8217;s peace &ndash; a Mexican bishop calls for hope\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"End the violence, seek God's peace &ndash; a Mexican bishop calls for hope","description":"Irapuato, Mexico, May 10, 2016 \/ 06:08 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A Mexican bishop is seeking answers after recent attacks on Catholic churches and priests, and years of high murder rates. &ldquo;The solution lies in changing people&rsquo;s hearts, and in making peace to really be peace with God and with your brothers and sisters, otherwise we shouldn&rsquo;t expect a good future,&rdquo; Bishop Jos&eacute; de Jes&uacute;s Mart&iacute;nez Zepeda of Irapuato said in a recent interview with the Mexican weekly Desde la Fe. According to Mexico&rsquo;s National Institute for Statistics and Geography, between 2007 and 2014 there were 164,345 reported homicides in the country. The period includes some of the bloodiest years of fighting between the drug cartels and the Mexican government, following the beginning of a &ldquo;war on drugs&rdquo; begun in 2006. Such violence came home to Irapuato last month. On April 26, four armed men assaulted Fr. Efren Silva while he was in the sacristy of Lord of Mercy parish in Irapuato's Lazaro Cardenas neighborhood, stealing nearly $400. Bishop Mart&iacute;nez lamented the crime. &ldquo;The robbers came in, tied him up and roughed him up so he would tell them where the money was. In reality, it's a very poor parish, when the money comes in and goes out on a daily basis.&rdquo; The prelate said this is not an isolated incident. He recently learned of a priest from Salamanca who had been attacked by some robbers. They &ldquo;struck him on the forehead, inflicting such a wound that he had to go to a medical center to get stitches.&rdquo; &ldquo;We hope these incidents will soon stop,&rdquo; he said. In 2015, three priests were murdered in Mexico, according to the Investigation Unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center. Bishop Mart&iacute;nez told the faithful that there is no reason to lose hope, for &ldquo;Christ has risen, the tomb is empty; we need to work so that the Resurrection of Christ encompasses our society.&rdquo;","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"End the violence, seek God's peace &ndash; a Mexican bishop calls for hope","og_description":"Irapuato, Mexico, May 10, 2016 \/ 06:08 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A Mexican bishop is seeking answers after recent attacks on Catholic churches and priests, and years of high murder rates. &ldquo;The solution lies in changing people&rsquo;s hearts, and in making peace to really be peace with God and with your brothers and sisters, otherwise we shouldn&rsquo;t expect a good future,&rdquo; Bishop Jos&eacute; de Jes&uacute;s Mart&iacute;nez Zepeda of Irapuato said in a recent interview with the Mexican weekly Desde la Fe. According to Mexico&rsquo;s National Institute for Statistics and Geography, between 2007 and 2014 there were 164,345 reported homicides in the country. The period includes some of the bloodiest years of fighting between the drug cartels and the Mexican government, following the beginning of a &ldquo;war on drugs&rdquo; begun in 2006. Such violence came home to Irapuato last month. On April 26, four armed men assaulted Fr. Efren Silva while he was in the sacristy of Lord of Mercy parish in Irapuato's Lazaro Cardenas neighborhood, stealing nearly $400. Bishop Mart&iacute;nez lamented the crime. &ldquo;The robbers came in, tied him up and roughed him up so he would tell them where the money was. In reality, it's a very poor parish, when the money comes in and goes out on a daily basis.&rdquo; The prelate said this is not an isolated incident. He recently learned of a priest from Salamanca who had been attacked by some robbers. They &ldquo;struck him on the forehead, inflicting such a wound that he had to go to a medical center to get stitches.&rdquo; &ldquo;We hope these incidents will soon stop,&rdquo; he said. In 2015, three priests were murdered in Mexico, according to the Investigation Unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center. Bishop Mart&iacute;nez told the faithful that there is no reason to lose hope, for &ldquo;Christ has risen, the tomb is empty; we need to work so that the Resurrection of Christ encompasses our society.&rdquo;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2016-05-11T00:08:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Gun_Credit_Kirill_Demchenko_via_wwwshutterstockcom_CNA_1_7_16.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/","name":"End the violence, seek God's peace &ndash; a Mexican bishop calls for hope","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-05-11T00:08:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-11T00:08:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Irapuato, Mexico, May 10, 2016 \/ 06:08 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A Mexican bishop is seeking answers after recent attacks on Catholic churches and priests, and years of high murder rates. &ldquo;The solution lies in changing people&rsquo;s hearts, and in making peace to really be peace with God and with your brothers and sisters, otherwise we shouldn&rsquo;t expect a good future,&rdquo; Bishop Jos&eacute; de Jes&uacute;s Mart&iacute;nez Zepeda of Irapuato said in a recent interview with the Mexican weekly Desde la Fe. According to Mexico&rsquo;s National Institute for Statistics and Geography, between 2007 and 2014 there were 164,345 reported homicides in the country. The period includes some of the bloodiest years of fighting between the drug cartels and the Mexican government, following the beginning of a &ldquo;war on drugs&rdquo; begun in 2006. Such violence came home to Irapuato last month. On April 26, four armed men assaulted Fr. Efren Silva while he was in the sacristy of Lord of Mercy parish in Irapuato's Lazaro Cardenas neighborhood, stealing nearly $400. Bishop Mart&iacute;nez lamented the crime. &ldquo;The robbers came in, tied him up and roughed him up so he would tell them where the money was. In reality, it's a very poor parish, when the money comes in and goes out on a daily basis.&rdquo; The prelate said this is not an isolated incident. He recently learned of a priest from Salamanca who had been attacked by some robbers. They &ldquo;struck him on the forehead, inflicting such a wound that he had to go to a medical center to get stitches.&rdquo; &ldquo;We hope these incidents will soon stop,&rdquo; he said. In 2015, three priests were murdered in Mexico, according to the Investigation Unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center. Bishop Mart&iacute;nez told the faithful that there is no reason to lose hope, for &ldquo;Christ has risen, the tomb is empty; we need to work so that the Resurrection of Christ encompasses our society.&rdquo;","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/05\/end-the-violence-seek-gods-peace-a-mexican-bishop-calls-for-hope\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"End the violence, seek God&#8217;s peace &ndash; a Mexican bishop calls for hope"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}