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‘So many murders’: Pope mourns priests killed in Mexico

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Pope Francis leads the weekly general audience at Saint Peter" s="" Vatican="" June="" Ettore="" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/overseas/06/22/20220622-pope.jpg"/><figcaption>Pope Francis leads the weekly general audience at Saint Peter&#x27;s Square, Vatican City, June 15, 2022. <em>Ettore Ferrari, EPA-EFE</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Pope Francis on Wednesday lamented the spiral of violence engulfing Mexico, after two Jesuit priests and a man seeking sanctuary were gunned down inside a church.</p><p>The pope, himself a Jesuit, expressed sadness and dismay over the killings of men he called his &quot;brothers&quot; in the mountains of the northern state of Chihuahua.</p><p>&quot;So many murders in Mexico. I am close, in affection and prayer, to the Catholic community affected by this tragedy,&quot; the pontiff said at the end of his weekly audience at the Vatican.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/06/01/22/no-to-wheat-as-weapon-of-war-pope-says">Pope Francis: &#x27;No to wheat as weapon of war&#x27;</a></li></ul><p>Priests Javier Campos, 79, and Joaquin Mora, 81, were shot dead in the town of Cerocahui on Monday &quot;while trying to defend a man who was seeking refuge,&quot; according to the order also known as the Society of Jesus.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/05/26/22/pope-francis-heartbroken-over-texas-shooting">Pope Francis ‘heartbroken’ over Texas shooting, condemns arms trade</a></li></ul><p>The pursued man, who worked as a tour guide, was also killed and his body taken away with those of the two priests.</p><p>About 30 priests have been killed in Mexico in the past decade, according to the Centro Catolico Multimedial, a Catholic organization.</p><p>More than 340,000 people have been killed in a wave of bloodshed in Mexico since the government deployed the army to fight drug cartels in 2006.</p><div><strong>Crime-ridden region </strong></div><p>Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday that the alleged murderer had been identified and that a manhunt was under way.</p><p>The suspect, who was identified by another priest present in the church, was already wanted for the murder of a US tourist in 2018, he told reporters.</p><p>&quot;That area of the mountains has for some time been infiltrated, penetrated, dominated by crime,&quot; Lopez Obrador said.</p><p>The three bodies were placed in the back of a pickup truck by armed men, covered with plastic and taken away, according to Father Luis Gerardo Moro Madrid, head of the Jesuits in Mexico.</p><p>&quot;We demand justice and the recovery of the bodies,&quot; the order said.</p><p>Experts say Chihuahua is an important transit route for illegal drugs bound for the United States and violently contested between rival trafficking gangs.</p><p>Father Jorge Atilano Gonzalez, also a Jesuit, told a local television station the priests killed on Monday had attempted to intervene because they knew the assailant, who was from the area.</p><p>&quot;He wanted to confess&quot; after the shooting, he said, citing the testimony of the third priest present.</p><p>&quot;What we believe is that he was in a state of alcoholism or addiction because of the reaction he had,&quot; he added.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1804690" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><div><strong>&#x27;Important social work&#x27; </strong></div><p>The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico condemned the killings, saying the priests had carried out &quot;important social and pastoral work&quot; among the Raramuri, or Tarahumara, Indigenous people.</p><p>&quot;The murder of these two well-known priests reminds us of the situation of extreme violence and vulnerability faced by the communities of the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua,&quot; said UN human rights representative Guillermo Fernandez-Maldonado.</p><p>The Mexican Episcopal Conference called for a rapid investigation as well as increased security for the country&#x27;s clergy.</p><p>It is common for religious leaders in Mexico to act as defenders of their communities and as mediators with criminal gangs operating there.</p><p>In states such as Michoacan and Guerrero, some have even entered into dialogue with drug traffickers in a bid to keep the peace in largely poor regions with little government presence.</p>

About 30 priests have been killed in Mexico in the past decade, according to the Centro Catolico Multimedial, a Catholic organization.