Mexican Bishop Warns of Campaign Against the Church

The vice president of the Mexican bishops' conference says there is a campaign under way by vested interests to disparage the Catholic Church.

Bishop José Guadalupe Martín Rábago of Leon backed up his contention by pointing to the unfounded accusations of money laundering leveled against Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, archbishop of Guadalajara and successor of assassinated Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo.

In a press conference reported by the newspaper Reforma, Bishop Rábago said that there are "interests on the part of certain groups and persons that in fact wish to disparage the Church, and one can see in recent times that this type of assault has been intensified."

"I do not know what interests are behind it," he said. "But I think one can clearly see that there is this desire, this plan, to expose the Church, to discredit her, and in some way to strike her image before the community."