The Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico, filed a court document on July 28 as part of its ongoing effort to halt the seizure of 14 acres of its land, under eminent domain, for construction of a border wall.
“The Government has already begun blasting activity at the base of the mountain and has stated that it intends to give Mount Cristo Rey a ‘face lift,’” the diocese stated. “Such destructive activity—and callous attitude toward it—only heightens the Diocese’s concern that damage to the heart of the shrine—the statute of Christ on the mountaintop, the trails leading to it, or the natural landscape surrounding it—will result from the Government’s planned activity on Diocesan property.”
The diocese also stated that “the Government has declined to build the border wall along various stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border based on secular considerations, but it has not treated the Diocese’s religious exercise as favorably.”
Mount Christo Rey is the site of a shrine to Christ that was dedicated in 1939.