Philanthropy
On a wall of the chapel in the village of Tezontle, Hidalgo, a plaque says it was donated by Heriberto Lazcano: "Donated by Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, Lord, hear my prayer", reads the bronze-colored marker, which states the chapel was built in honor of Pope John Paul II. The Rev. Juan Aguilar, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tulancingo, where the chapel is located, said it was built in 2009 as a community project and the money did not go through the church, which was unaware of who funded it. The revelation has the church distancing itself from the property while admitting it knows of other donations from drug traffickers. The federal Attorney General is investigating the funding of the Tezontle chapel for possible criminal charges, including money laundering or "use of illicit funds." The diocese will decide whether to continue using the chapel, depending on the results of the federal investigation.
Aside from financing a church in Tezontle, Lazcano also sponsored several other constructions and festives in honor of Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos every February, which helped him gain the gratitude of the villagers. He also organized several celebrations during Children's Day and promoted the events through a number of media outlets. This practice was borrowed from the drug lord Cárdenas Guillén, who organized Children's Day parties when Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel were under a single command structure.
Read more about this topic: Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano
Famous quotes containing the word philanthropy:
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Almost every man we meet requires some civility,—requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)