Pubdate: Thu, 06 Oct 2005
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2005 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: Lisa J. Adams

DRUG MONEY AND THE CHURCH

Revelation About Donors Sparks Uproar

MEXICO CITY - When a Mexican bishop declared that drug traffickers
often donate to the church, shock waves ran through this predominantly
Roman Catholic nation -- not because the news was a surprise, but
because admitting it was tantamount to confessing that nothing, not
even God, is sacred when it comes to organized crime in Mexico.

Provoking the uproar were Bishop Ramon Godinez's comments to reporters
that donations from drug traffickers are not unusual and it's not the
church's responsibility to investigate. He argued that the money is
"purified" once it passes through parish doors.

"Just because the origin of the money is bad doesn't mean you have to
burn it," Godinez, of the central state of Aguascalientes, said last
month. "Instead, you have to transform it. ... We live on this, on the
offerings of the faithful."

Organized crime, especially drug trafficking, and the threat it poses
to public safety are among Mexicans' highest concerns. And it's not
just the criminals they worry about. They also distrust the public
agencies responsible for tackling crime -- prosecutors, police, the
judicial system, politicians -- all of which are perceived to be
corrupt to some degree.

The church, on the other hand, is still held in high esteem.

"Of all the institutions in Mexico, the church is ranked No. 1 in
terms of people's confidence," said Roderic Ai Camp, an expert on
Mexican religion at Claremont-McKenna College in California. It is
"the one institution they find morally superior and basically honest
and serving the interests of the average Mexican."

That trust holds steady even though it is common knowledge that "many
towns and chapels in Mexico have been remodeled and restored thanks to
the generous contributions of people who work in drug trafficking,"
Mexican religion expert Roberto Blancarte wrote in the Milenio newspaper.

Especially in poor, outlying rural areas, drug traffickers have taken
on a kind of "Robin Hood" role, Blancarte said.

"It's not official, but it's probably fairly accepted," Camp added.
"You don't want to legitimize it ... because it's such a contradiction
to the church's whole philosophy. People are looking to the church for
moral leadership."

The Vatican had no comment on the matter Wednesday. But a Vatican
official noted that the church has general principles based on the
Bible that would prevent it from receiving the "fruit of an injustice."

Godinez's admission has drawn into controversy one of Mexico's most
revered -- and criticized -- institutions.

For more than 300 years after the Spanish conquest of 1521, the
Catholic Church was at the heart of Mexican power socially,
politically and economically. Although the mid-19th century Laws of
the Reform put an end to that dominance, the country has remained --
at least nominally -- 90 percent Catholic.

"There are many ... who want to scare us with the idea" that the
church once again could become an all-powerful presence," said Jaime
Septien Crespo, editor of the Catholic weekly newspaper Observador in
the central state of Queretaro. "There is an interest in discrediting
this presence, so when a minister of the church says something clumsy,
he becomes an easy target."

As next year's presidential election race heats up, the scandal has
been exaggerated by political parties "looking to destroy potential
alliances, in this case an alliance of the National Action Party and
the church," Crespo said, referring to the alleged links between
President Vicente Fox's conservative party and the clergy.

Camp says that while there are "numerous examples of drug traffickers
donating money to the local parish ... I don't think there has ever
been any known case of collusion between any high-level Mexican
religious officials and drug traffickers."
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