The leader and a group of 27 families were expelled from their community "just for being evangelicals," according to a recent report and a Chiapas newspaper. And now the families, which include about 40 children, are living in a cattle barn because they have nowhere else to go.
Most people in Chiapas practice a blend of Catholicism and animistic beliefs. When evangelical Christians refuse to participate in community-wide religious celebrations that involve heavy drinking and worshiping spirits, they are viewed as outsiders or worse. In 2010 an evangelical pastor named Armando Lopez was attacked by a men with machetes and then shot to death. Mexican police arrested one of the men last year.
More commonly, however, evangelicals are forced or coerced to leave their communities, land and livestock. In June and 2012, a group of traditionalist Catholics (as they're called in Chiapas) compelled a group of 40 Christians and San Cristobal de las Casas to leave their homes. On Sunday, June 10, the traditionalists imprisoned the evangelicals and warned them that they would burn their homes and belongings and rape their woman if the Christians didn't leave the village. The next day at noon, the traditionalists came to the prison and asked them to "voluntarily" sign an agreement to leave the village in exchange for their release. Three days later, the traditionalist destroyed19 of their homes with torches and hatchets.
VOM has been providing basic needs to expelled questions like these through a dedicated pastor who volunteers his time to help. Last year, we provided the Christians living in the cattle barn with mattresses in food. Although the 27 families are sleeping on mattresses on the ground and storing their belongings in a cattle trough, they have an eternal perspective. They chose to give up their temporal homes rather than compromise their faith in the God who will shelter them in his heavenly home for all eternity.
Religious persecution is not new much less exclusively done by Catholics, as early Catholic settlers is the U.S. realized (not without some understandable alarm), and these cultural Catholics are acting in accord with modern RC teaching on freedom of religion, or with past historical RC teaching by taking matters into their own hands, rather than making the State doing the work of cleansing the land of “heretics,” but which it seems some traditional RCs seem to long for.
Yet this persecution of evangelical Christians in S. American Catholic strongholds is not new, as a little over a year ago it was reported that at least 70 evangelical Christians in Mexico’s east-central region were homeless Saturday, September 17, after being expelled by local authorities from their village where traditional Catholics reportedly threatened to “crucify or lynch” them. - http://www.bosnewslife.com/18215-mexico-evangelicals-leave-village-after-crucifixion-threats
Note that while the above appeared in the Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, as RCs themselves are persecuted in many places, mainly by Islam and Communists, Voice of the Martyrs also works to provide some assistance to them.
The seminary has all the ordinary classes and a good number of students. A well-equipped school for primary instruction is directed by the Marist Brothers, and a school for girls is under the care of the Sisters of the Divine Providence. There are other Catholic schools in this and other cities of the diocese. The see city possesses a goodcathedral and nineteen other churches. The diocese has been governed by thirty-six bishops since its foundation.
Please don't expect any denouncing of these Catholics. Instead expect 1) denouncing of posting such a hateful article, or 2) silence.
What an incohesive argument you are having with yourself, daniel1212, in this diatribe. Extremely hard to read and impossible to follow.