Mexican bishops offer to mediate electoral crisis, call for prayers

Published: 2006-07-26

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- The Mexican bishops offered to mediate an electoral crisis that has divided the nation and raised fears that massive protests could turn disruptive. The bishops also called for a week of prayers July 31-Aug. 6 for "reconciliation, peace and harmony." "We want to be mediators, (though) not official ones," Bishop Jose Martin Rabago of Leon, president of the Mexican bishops' conference, told reporters July 20. "We want to use the credibility that the (church) has in Mexico to offer ourselves (to) everybody of good will to collaborate" to resolve the situation, he said. Leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador claims Mexican President Vicente Fox and election officials rigged the July 2 presidential election won by conservative Felipe Calderon. Lopez Obrador has led hundreds of thousands in two massive marches to protest the alleged fraud, and his Democratic Revolution Party has threatened more disruptive measures if an electoral tribunal does not order a full recount.

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