MEXICO
Another two young priests murdered
Mexico has been named “the most dangerous place to be a priest”, even worse than Syria, and sadly is living up to its reputation as the violence continues in the first few weeks of 2018.
News has emerged that another two priests have been killed in the early hours of 5 February in an ambush along the road linking Taxco to Iguala, in the state of Guerrero. They are Father Ivan Jaimes, 37, Archdiocese of Acapulco, Curate at Las Vegas, and Father Germain Muniz Garcia, 39, Curate of Mezcala, in the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa.
The two priests were in a car with four other people. They were returning from Juliantla, where they had participated in the feast of Our Lady of Candlemas when a vehicle blocked their way. Gunmen then fired at them, killing the two priests at the front of the vehicle and injuring three of the other passengers; the fourth escaped unharmed. Later, police found an abandoned vehicle with a military type bandolier and a rifle holder inside it about one kilometre from the site of the ambush.
Diocese spokesman Benito Cuenca condemned the attack on the priests, recalling that in the last five years, six priests have been murdered in Guerrero. He invited priests to take all necessary precautions to protect themselves especially when their pastoral work puts them in danger.
Archbishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza, the bishop of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, described the death of the two priests as “a grave loss for the whole Church, for both Dioceses and their families.” He made an earnest appeal to the authorities to take action to ensure peace in Mexico and the state of Guerrero.
ACN Malta
