MEXICO CITY -- Catholic bishops in Mexico are trying to stop the showing of a film about the romantic relationship of a young priest.

Newspapers on Monday quoted the President of the Council of Mexican Bishops, Luis Morales Reyes, as saying that church leaders have asked President Vicente Fox and Interior Secretary Santiago Creel to stop the August 16 release of "El Crimen del Padre Amaro" ("The Crimes of Father Amaro"), DPA reported.

In the film, actor Gael Garcia Bernal, who began internationally known with roles in "Y Tu Mama Tambien" ("And Your Mother Too"), plays a priest who falls in love with a girl.

Church leaders seemed divided, however, on their opinion of the film. Last week, the Secretary of Public Relations for the Council of Bishops, Rafael Gonzalez, declared the movie harmless, but over the weekend, he was contradicted by the conference's Vice-President, Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago, and the archbishops of Mexico City, cardinal Norberto Rivera.