Catholic Church in Mexico proposes support for families of the disappeared

The Catholic Church in Mexico, through its ‘Diálogo Nacional por la Paz’ initiative, has proposed four specific actions to support families of the disappeared. This announcement coincides with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

The proposed actions include: welcoming searching families into weekly religious celebrations to provide empathy and consolation; facilitating the installation of ‘peace mailboxes’ within church facilities to allow for anonymous tips regarding the location of victims; incorporating the category of the disappeared into prayers and invocations; and supporting activities organized by searching families.

The initiative emphasizes that achieving peace in the country requires healing the wounds caused by disappearances. Civil organizations report that approximately 135,000 people have disappeared in Mexico over the last two decades, a crisis that has led many families to conduct their own searches due to perceived state limitations.