Pubdate: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 Source: Houston Chronicle, page 28A Contact: Andrew Downie Mexico renews debate on church taking drug cash Catholic priest tells his flock traffickers put pesos in the plate By ANDREW DOWNIE Copyright 1997 Special to the Chronicle MEXICO CITY Like many of the recent scandals in Mexico, it started when a member of the establishment spoke out of turn. Roman Catholic priest Raul Soto Vazquez told an astonished congregation that all drug traffickers were not bad and that many had given donations to the church. The comments set off a fierce debate in Mexico over the church's relations with the country's staunchly Catholic drug traffickers. The revelations that two of Mexico's most notorious drug traffickers, the jailed Rafael Caro Quintero and the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes, had put pesos in the collection plate has become big news in Mexico. "People with little saving graces such as Caro Quintero how good it would be if we gave so generously," Soto said last week. "And Amado Carrillo, who sometimes gave money for great projects. People don't care that he was a drug trafficker." The comments provoked a storm of criticism from government officials and church leaders and reopened a dormant debate over the degree to which the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico knows about and condones trafficking and traffickers. Some experts believe the practice is common in areas where drug traffickers have an established presence and that the church has simply never acknowledged the problem. "The Catholic church all over the world has a history of covering things up," said Soledad Loaeza, an expert on churchstate relations at the Colegio de Mexico. "It's not surprising that this has never been spoken about," he said. "People do not speak up about shameful matters." The scandal has deeply embarrassed Catholic leaders in Mexico and brings back painful memories of a few years ago when it was revealed that two of the notorious Arellano Felix brothers who run the Tijuana drug cartel met with the papal nuncio the Vatican envoy at his residence in Mexico City. The nuncio, Giralome Prigione, heard what he called a confession from Benjamin and Ramon Arellano and agreed to pass on a message to the pope. The two men had gone to the capital to express their innocence of the May 1993 killing of Juan Jesus Posadas, the Guadalajara cardinal who was brutally and, according to the government, mistakenly murdered during a shootout between two groups of drug traffickers, one of which was made up of members of the Tijuana cartel. The priest who arranged the meeting with the papal nuncio was widely held to be a confidante of the Arellanos, and the Mexican media has reported other examples of priests who were on good terms with traffickers. But there are few concrete examples of those priests receiving money or other help for their parishes. Unlike in Colombia, where top traffickers built schools, soccer fields and even housing for the poor, in Mexico, dealers are not renowned for their largess, partly because such deeds go unsaid in Mexico and partly because there are not that many of them. In one of the most publicized cases, the local priest in Carrillo's hometown of El Guamuchilito acknowledged that the drug baron paid for the pastelcolored chapel that sits incongruously among the dirtpoor hamlet's cement and wood shacks. Although the church was built several years ago, it was only after Carrillo died in July that the federal attorney general's office opened an investigation. And it is only now, thanks to Soto, that the debate over what are being dubbed narcolimosnas, or drug donations, has become public. Loaeza said both sides have remained mum because, as in many Catholic countries, the government and church have an unwritten agreement to refrain from meddling in each other's problems. For the moment at least, that agreement seems to be holding. Federal Attorney General Jorge Madrazo said his office is not investigating the narcolimosnas. Church leaders, meanwhile, said that they do not have the resources to launch an internal inquiry and are adamant that they have no way of knowing who is donating what to their parish and even less idea of where the money comes from. "It is not possible (to ask) where did that 10 pesos that you are putting in the collection plate come from," said Onesimo Cepeda, bishop of Ecatepec. Andrew Downie is a freelance journalist based in Mexico City.