IN Ireland it is - or was - politicians who had to learn how to dodge the "belt of the crozier" from an irate bishop, but in Mexico it is journalists who are on the receiving end.
The Washington Post reported this week that the Mexican media came off worst when they tried to interview Archbishop Noberto Rivera Carrera after Mass about a parish priest who praised notorious drug traffickers for their "charitable" donations to the Catholic church and to the needy. A "fracas" ensued between the archbishop's aides and reporters. "One of the aides reportedly hit a reporter in the head with a crozier, a bishops staff of office, while others kicked journalists and cameramen, smashed one reporter's tape recorder and threatened to send the media representatives to `military camps' to discipline them, according to Mexican newspaper accounts of the melee," the Post said.
The archbishop did not apologise, noting that "The media's aggressions often are more violent than the violence . . . in our streets."