San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. After stating that “to remain silent in the face of barbarism is to be an accomplice to the oppressor,” the Diocese of San Cristóbal “urgently” asked the more than 50 parishes that comprise it to hold a pilgrimage on Sunday, the 28th of this month, at 12 noon, “with the recitation of the Rosary, with banners and slogans calling for peace in Palestine and an end to the genocide.”
It asked the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM) to “make a clear and prophetic denunciation of the genocide that Palestine is suffering and to encourage the different dioceses to organize days of fasting and prayer, with concrete actions of solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
In a document signed by Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar Martínez; the vicar of pastoral care, Carolina Lara Rodríguez; the coordinator of social pastoral care, Bernabé Antonio Altamirano Díaz; the vicar general, Víctor Manuel Pérez Hernández; the vicar of justice and peace, Miguel Angel Montoya Moreno, and the secretary chancellor, María Reyes Arias Sarao, also suggested to the dioceses of Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Tapachula that “they join in these activities from their parishes or organize other actions calling for peace in Palestine.”
The diocese stated that “with deep indignation, we know that international organizations today have legal and political instruments that can stop the genocide being carried out in Gaza by the Israeli army, with the advice and unconditional support of the US government, and that these instruments are not being applied to the Israeli government committing this barbarity.”
As humanity, it added, “we are standing by as passive spectators to the massacre and genocide that Israel is carrying out against the Palestinian people and those who stand in solidarity with them.”
It pointed out that “according to experts and media reports, more than 64,000 people have been killed, the vast majority of them innocent women and children; more than 100 journalists have been murdered; schools, hospitals, shelters, and places of worship have been destroyed; and United Nations and international personnel have been persecuted and criminalized.”
It emphasized that “as the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, we are outraged, saddened, and feel powerless in the face of the genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people by the Israeli government. This genocide is one of many others being committed in other regions of the world.”
It stated that “one of the cruelest strategies of this genocide is to use hunger to break resistance and kill people, blocking the entry of food and medicine destined for the Palestinian people, which has caused the death of hundreds of children and adults from starvation.”
The local diocese also called on “our brothers and sisters of other religious denominations and all men and women who fight for peace with justice and dignity to continue their actions in support of the Palestinian people or to join in Sunday’s actions in accordance with their beliefs and what their hearts inspire them to do.”
He concluded: “The blood of thousands of innocent people, especially children, women, and the elderly, cries out to heaven and questions our fidelity to the Gospel of life and justice. To remain silent in the face of barbarism is to be complicit with the oppressor.”
Original text by Elio Henríquez published in La Jornada on September 13th, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.