David Agren

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.

The Mexican bishops' conference has questioned accusations of untoward behavior by retired Bishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza of Chilpancingo-Chilapa amid conflicting accounts of his disappearance and subsequent reappearance in a hospital bed — with the conference secretary general saying the situation had assumed political overtones.

The Mexican bishops' conference, the Society of Jesus and the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious of Mexico convened the country's three presidential candidates March 11 to sign their National Agenda for Peace -- a roadmap for pacifying Mexico and the starting point for dialogue with the next government.

Shortly after New Year's Day, 32 kidnapped migrants appeared in the border city of Rio Bravo, Mexico, after a media storm over their disappearance -- having been forced off an intercity bus by a drug cartel convoy.

Pope Francis has expressed sorrow for the victims of a bus crash in Panama, which claimed the lives of 39 migrants transiting the Central American country.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega blasted Catholic leaders as a "gang of murderers," in comments amping up persecution of the church and scorning Pope Francis' call for dialogue in the Central American country.

The arrest of Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez marks another escalation in the repression against the Catholic Church in the Central American country.

U.S. members of Congress have sent a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to "work closely with the Mexican government to sure there is full accountability for the murders" of two Jesuits in their parish and a tour guide they were protecting.

Two Jesuit priests were murdered in a rugged region of Mexico rife with violence as they provided refuge to a person being pursued by a gunman, according to the Society of Jesus and state officials.