Priest stabbed during Mass at Mexico City cathedral

May 17, 2017 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

Mexico City, Mexico, May 17, 2017 / 06:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Mexican priest is in “delicate but stable” condition after being stabbed in the neck Monday evening at Mexico City’s cathedral, according to government and church authorities.

Father José Miguel Machorro Alcalá, 55, was stabbed in the neck and torso May 15 at the conclusion of saying Mass at the cathedral.

Witnesses reported that it appeared the attacker's intention was to slit the priest’s throat.

Authorities detained a suspect at the scene who had reportedly attempted to flee the cathedral. The suspect has been identified as John Rock Schild, who identified himself as an artist from the United States. He is believed to be about 30 years of age.

 

Afortunadamente la policía detuvo al agresor! pic.twitter.com/ehHNRhK19w

— Padre José Aguilar (@PadreJosedejesu) May 16, 2017

 

At a news conference, the lawyer of the Archdiocese of Mexico, Armando Martínez, asked for prayers for the priest and said the motive for the attack was still unclear.

"We cannot talk about terrorism, we cannot talk about motives, because we obviously have no significant facts," he said.

In a radio interview Tuesday morning, archdiocesan spokesman Hugo Valdelomar said the attack occurred as Fr. Machorro was blessing the congregation with holy water. He said the priest suffered severe injuries to his neck and near his lung.

Fr. Machorro was transferred by helicopter to a private hospital. He was operated on, and is now stable but in intensive care, according to the Mexico City archdiocese.

Masses at the cathedral are continuing at regularly scheduled hours.

The attack is one of many recent attacks against priests in Mexico. Drug trafficking has led to increased murder and kidnapping in the country. In recent years, 17 priests have been murdered and many others have been kidnapped or assaulted.

 

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Meet the priest who serves an unlikely community in Peru’s Amazon

January 19, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Puerto Maldonado, Peru, Jan 19, 2018 / 02:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Fr. Pablo Zabala is a 70-year old Spanish priest, who serves in a remote part of the world: the Peruvian Amazon.

Most of the people who fill his church pews are gold miners and sex workers in Boca Colorado – an area that some are likening to the California Gold Rush. Before Fr. Zabala began serving in the Amazon, his fellow clergy compared it to Sodom and Gomorrah.

“God is in all parts,” Zabala told them, saying he felt a calling to serve with “the life of the common people,” according to the Associated Press.

Kabala, a former biologist, has lived in the Amazon for the past 24 years, 10 of which have been spent heading up the parish in Boca Colorado, part of the Madre de Dios region. Pope Francis visited the region’s capital, Puerto Maldonado, on Friday.

During his ministry, he has seen how miners support their families through their trade mainly because they have no other option for work. Poverty, Zabala noted, has driven thousands into mining or prostitution.

According to AP, miners in the area are using mercury in their pursuit of gold, which has infiltrated into the local water systems. In addition, the miners have brought with them new roadways which have tapped into the rainforest’s supply of trees.

However, Zabala has been working closely with the locals, saying he often points the women toward the witness of St. Mary Madgalene, who has been an effective inspiration for them. He also noted that the women in the town have been instrumental in building two churches.

In addition, Zabala offers the support that he can to the miners, usually in the form of a listening ear. However, on occasion, the task falls to the local priest to bury lone miners who get caught up in local conflicts.

“He’s here for the difficult moments,” said Juana Roque, a local woman who lives with her family in the mining camps.

Pope Francis visited the Madre de Dios region Jan. 19, meeting with indigenous Amazonians, the people of Puerto Maldonado, and the community of a home for orphaned children.

While meeting with members of the Amazonian community, he handed out copies of his 2015 encyclical Laudato si’ and noted that “the defense of the earth has no other purpose than the defense of life.

He also spoke about desperations of poverty which has led many to seek gold in the Amazon’s mines. However, he warned that gold can turn into “a false god that demands human sacrifices,” which can “corrupt people and institutions, and they ruin the forest.”

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