Mexico: The Pandemic Exacts a Heavy Price on the Church

The data from the 16th report of the Catholic Multimedia Center (CCM) published in February 2021, resembles a funeral chronicle: between April 2020—from the beginning of the Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic—until January 31, 2021, no fewer than 172 priests, 5 bishops, 10 deacons, and 7 religious have died as a result of the virus in Mexico.

The month of January turned out to be the deadliest since the start of the pandemic for Mexican priests and religious: on average one priest died every day and infections continued to increase among the clergy. Thus, between January 1 and January 31, 37 priests, an auxiliary bishop, 2 sisters, and 2 deacons died of the virus.

The question of health insurance is one of the keys to the problem, and in this area not all dioceses are equal.

Where the clergy and religious benefit from a good mutual health insurance scheme - as is the case in the Archdiocese of Monterrey - care is better and the number of deaths is much lower.

But in the Archdiocese of Mexico and that of Puebla, where health insurance is most often lacking for the clergy, the reverse is happening. “The situation (there) is critical for ecclesiastics who do not have any health coverage, or suffer from the lack of renewal of their health insurance, making them unable to deal with the complications of Covid-19,” denounces the Conference of Bishops of Mexico (CEM).

At the start of February 2021, Mexico ranked third in the world in absolute death toll - 161,240 deaths as of February 3 - behind Brazil and the United States, and hospitals are faced with an oxygen shortage.

The government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, “AMLO,” has made a bet on non-coercive health measures: no fines, no compulsory confinement, or restrictions for foreign tourists.

“We must find the balance between health and economic survival when half the population is poor,” said Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the official who heads the government’s strategy against Covid-19 in a country where economic growth tumbled 8.5% in 2020.

On February 2, on the feast of the Presentation of Our Lord, in a long press release intended for the clergy and religious, the CEM expressed its position in the context of the health emergency: “In the face of the pandemic which strikes us, we have the example of St. Joseph. Brothers and sisters of consecrated life, the Church needs your fidelity and creative courage, following the example of St. Joseph.”