CNN/AP: Mexico warns church on accepting drug-tainted money

Mexico warns church on drug-tainted money
Tuesday, September 20, 2005


MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A spokesman for President Vicente Fox on Tuesday warned that no one may accept illegal funds, responding to a Roman Catholic bishop's statement that the church has no obligation to investigate whether donations come from drug trafficking.

The exchange between church and state officials came the week after Pope Benedict XVI lamented that Mexican society was troubled by corruption, drug trafficking and organized crime, during a meeting with bishops from northern and central Mexico at the Vatican.

"At no time, under no condition, may anyone receive illegal money," said Fox spokesman Ruben Aguilar. "No one may in this way aid in the laundering of money, and nobody can be in favor of organized crime acting with impunity."

Aguilar was responding to comments made Monday by Roman Catholic Bishop Ramon Godinez, of the central state of Aguascalientes, who said that donations linked to drug trafficking are not out of the ordinary -- and that it's not the church's responsibility to investigate their origin.

"If they have money, they have to spend it; I don't know why such a scandal has been made of this," Godinez said in a follow-up interview with the Televisa television network Tuesday. "If a drug trafficker gives, we are not going to investigate if he's a trafficker or not....


http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/09/20/mexico.church.ap/index.html

That would be "bashing."

Seriously, I could see the guy's point that the church is in no position to conduct narcotics investigations.

But his hyperbolic protestations, just after his boss trashed all of Mexican society as corrupt and drug-addled... it's just too much. :eyes:

As loose bills. (Could happen; drug dealers go to church. In Vegas they toss casino chips in the collection basket, but that's another post.)