Some Catholic leaders have openly defended their dubious benefactors. Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who was considered Mexico’s most dominant drug trafficker until he died in 1997, was publicly praised by at least one influential priest, who encouraged Mexicans to see the drug baron as a model of Catholic generosity. Mr. Carrillo Fuentes was also photographed traveling to Israel with two priests, including one who said he considered the trip appropriate because of the cartel leader’s gifts to an orphanage.

But the recent surge in violence has altered the dynamic. Father Valdemar said that dozens of priests had been quietly transferred to avoid death threats and extortion attempts from drug gangs.

At the same time, cartels have been expanding their own “alternative religiosity,” said Alberto Hernández, a sociologist at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana. La Familia, a cartel that is concentrated in Michoacán State, has become known for its pseudo-Christian messages left on banners over highways. Organized crime groups have also popularized unofficial saints, like Santa Muerte, or St. Death. And increasingly, they have taken on the construction of chapels and shrines.

Church officials say there are about 6,000 independently built chapels nationwide. They note that the benefactors are rarely known, but priests at nearby parishes often perform services in them.

At times, the distance between the church and the cartels is obvious: Mr. Hernández cited an instance in Sinaloa when, after a senior cartel figure was killed, his associates shot to bits a giant image of St. Jude, patron saint of lost causes, apparently because they felt he did not answer their prayers.

The Lazcano chapel, however, is a more complicated case. Despite the plaque, and Mr. Lazcano’s roots in the area, the archbishop of the local diocese, Msgr. Domingo Díaz Martínez, insisted that “whether the chapel was built dishonestly, that we cannot say.”

Image Credit... The New York Times

He noted that the authorities did not appear to have finished their investigation, which federal prosecutors confirmed. More important, he said, “People in the community have asked for services, and when they ask, we go.”