By: PAUL DE LA GARZA Chicago Tribune

SOCIAL ISSUES: A priest triggers the latest debate with remarks about the
good works of two cartel leaders.

MEXICO CITYIn recent days,the media have had a field day with the Roman
Catholic Church here, as a result of comments a priest made that seemed to
glorify druglords.

Although the priest said he was misquoted, the controversy once again has
called into question the relationship between the church and the nation's
notorious narcotraffickers.

Last week, fed up with characterizations it labeled slanderous, the church
implored the government to rein in the media. But the government itself has
joined the fray, calling for an investigation of church coffers. One church
official apparently already is under investigation.

The church's latest headache began Sept. 19 during a Mass at the Basilica
of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

In his homily, the Rev. Jose Raul Soto Vazquez was talking about neighborly
love when he used two of Mexico's drug barons, Rafael Caro Quintero and the
late Amado Carrillo Fuentes, to make his point.

"All of us, now and then, do good things or else we'd be monsters. I have
told you time and again that there are people ... with shady reputations
like Caro Quintero, that we would all want to make the type of donations
that they make, the help that he and Amado Carrillo give ... but that does
not stop them from trafficking in drugs."

With that, the brouhaha was sealed, with headlines screaming that
narcotraffickers were donating money to the church.

Soto argued he was misquoted. He said he had used Caro Quintero and
Carrillo as examples to illustrate that even the worst sinners are capable
of good.

"I cannot condemn anyone, not even them," Soto said at a subsequent news
conference.

In May 1993, after Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo was shot to death at
the airport in Guadalajuara, authorities said he had been caught in
crossfire between two rival drug cartels.

Recently the former director of the Judicial Federal Police, Juan Pablo de
Tavire, linked Posadas to narcotraffickers. Church officials categorically
deny the allegations, demanding that de Tavira offer proof. So far, he has
not.

In July, after the death of Carrillo after plastic surgery in Mexico City,
the church suffered another embarrassment. Reporters who converged on
Carrillo's home in Culiacan heard tales from parish priests about the good
work he did for the community, including paying for building a church at
the behest of a local priest.