Mexico’s Roman Catholic Church suspended a controversial priest who advised parishioners to carry weapons to fight drug cartels. Better known as “Father Pistolas”, Reverend Alfredo Gallegos is a priest from the violence-dominated western state of Michoacan who sometimes has a gun carried.
A circular from the archdiocese of Morelia, the state capital, ordered other priests not to allow Reverend Gallegos to celebrate mass.
While the archdiocese did not respond to phone calls asking to confirm the order, on Wednesday a priest from a nearby diocese who was not authorized to be appointed confirmed the authenticity of the order.
The order, dated September 21, did not specify the reason for the indefinite suspension imposed earlier that month, only stating that Gallegos “had been reprimanded several times” for something.
Even for Michoacan, it was surprising when Reverend Gallegos called parishioners from the pulpit in 2021 to arm themselves against warring drug gangs.
“The cartel gunmen come, they take the livestock, they screw your wife and daughter, and you do nothing,” the Rev. Alfredo Gallegos said in a sermon. “Well, get yourself a gun, the government can go to hell,” reports CBS News.
“We have to defend our lives,” Gallegos continued, according to CBS News.
Mexican law prohibits most civilians from owning almost any firearm except shotguns or very small caliber rifles.
At the time, Gallegos was supported by a Roman Catholic clergy.
Reverend Gregorio López, a priest known for once wearing a flak jacket when celebrating mass, has spent the past few years running shelters for people who have fled their homes due to violence. He also tried to help secure asylum or refugee status for Michoacan residents in the United States.
López called Gallegos’ sermon “the cry of the people”.
“He is trying to be the voice of the people, and that is the feeling of the community, that they should be armed,” said López, who served as a sort of spiritual adviser for some of the self-defense groups in 2014. Mexico is a notoriously dangerous country for priests’ own personal safety,” according to the order, also known as the Society of Jesus, reports CBS News.
The church’s Catholic Multimedia Center said seven priests were murdered under the current administration, which took office in December 2018, and at least two dozen under the former president, who took office in 2012. In 2016, three priests were killed in a single week. in Mexico.
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