The great bishop Raúl Vera receives threats - from whom?

Raúl Vera, bishop of Saltillo, and one of the very few of the top layers of the Mexican Catholic church with a demonstrated care for the poor, has been threatened with narco-style anonymous banners or mantas, containing messages such as "We want a Catholic Bishop" and "We Want the Bishop Only to Talk about Religion."

Vera is known for his defense of human rights and work on behalf of poor and marginalized sectors, and defending the rights of migrants, workers, women, gays, and others.

The usually arch-conservative Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano (CEM) to its credit found it wise to express its support for Vera, while the vicar general of the diocese of Saltillo noted that the banners could have been placed there by both conservative catholic groups, and factions of organized crime.

Which are far too often, unfortunately, the very same.

Mexican church rallies behind Enrique Peña Nieto

The Mexican Episcopal Conference (Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano) which is not a conference at all but the official leadership organization of the Mexican Catholic church, deemed the government of Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico State to have been "successful" and one of the best state administrations of Mexico, according to "statistics."

What statistics? Mexico State is an absolute an utter disaster, and the few gains made under Peña Nieto's administration pale compared to to brutal rises in vital statistics such as crime, murders, and unemployment, as detailed recently by e.g. IMCO and COPARMEX.

Yet since when has the top hierarchy of the Mexican catholic church ever been interested in facts?

More on cristianos and catholics: Quality, not quantity?

Elio Masferrer Kan,  head of the Asociación Latinoamericana para el Estudio de las Religiones, argued that INEGI's figures on religious adherents are wrong and that catholics make out not 83.9, but 82.72 percent. Big deal, you might tell yourself - and that would in any case be pretty much what Manuel Corral of the catholic Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano seemingly responded:


"[Corral] minimized the decline of Catholics in the country. He said that what matters most to the Catholic Church is the quality of the faithful rather than the quantity (!)


What on earth does that even mean?