"Church Focused on Social Work – Stopped Proclaiming Christ"

"The Church in Mexico, as in many Latin American countries, has devoted itself largely to social issues and has stopped proclaiming Jesus Christ,” said the Spanish priest Christopher Hartley, speaking to ReligionEnLibertad.com (January 3).

Christopher Hartley was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Toledo in 1982 and has since spent more than four decades serving almost entirely as a missionary outside his homeland, in countries including the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Sudan, and, most recently, Mexico.

Mexican priests are preoccupied with humanitarian issues as if the Church were an NGO, he added. In contrast, evangelical groups “devote themselves to talking about Jesus Christ, the Bible, God’s love, and salvation.”

Since 2023, he has been in the Mixteca region of Guerrero, Mexico, evangelizing more than 160 villages with little or no previous Church presence.

According to him, many of these communities have never been catechized, lack access to the sacraments, and do not associate faith with the idea that God is love.

Religious practice is often syncretic, combining Catholic symbols with pre-Christian views.

Rev. Hartley also reports that widespread alcoholism and moral disorientation are rarely addressed by Church authorities, often in the name of cultural sensitivity.

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