An anarchist group calling itself “Informal Feminist Commando of Anti-Authoritarian Action Coatlicue” has claimed credit for detonating an explosive device outside the Mexican bishops’ conference offices. The group said via an online posting: “Not God nor master. For each torture and murder in the name of your God. For every child abused by paedophile priests.” Coatlicue is an Aztec goddess known as the mother of gods. No arrests have been made over the explosion, which occurred at offices across the street from the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the country’s most visited religious site. The conference leadership said shortly after the explosion that it did not believe the incident was an attack on the Church. Humberto Roque Villanueva, Mexico’s under-secretary for population, migration and religious matters, called the explosion “a message of hate”, during an interview with the newspaper El Universal. The issue of clerical sexual abuse made headlines recently in Mexico. Two former priests filed criminal accusations against Cardinal Norberto Rivera for reporting the cases of 15 priests to the Vatican, but not the judicial authorities. Cardinal Rivera rejected the accusations, saying he followed the law in Mexico at the time. Bishop Ramon Castro Castro of Cuernavaca said the attack “reflects the situation in Mexico”. Bishop Castro has spoken against violence affecting his diocese, just south of Mexico City. In June, 2,235 murders took place in Mexico – the most in any single month in 20 years.