Pope Francis to visit Chile, Peru in January 2018

Bombs strike southern Lebanon. / Credit: Aid to the Church in Need

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 3, 2024 / 17:15 pm (CNA).
Some 9,000 Christians in three villages in southern Lebanon are in constant danger because of the war between Israel and Hezbolla… […]

Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 20, 2018 / 03:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Catholic priest in the Diocese of Cuautitlán Izcalli, México, was stabbed to death inside a church Wednesday, local reports said.

The death of Fr. Rubén Alcántara Díaz, judicial vicar of the diocese, makes 22 priests who have been murdered since 2012, the Catholic Multimedia Center reported.

According to local media, the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico State confirmed that the murder occurred the evening of April 18, inside Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in the Cumbria neighborhood.

Reports state that the 50-year-old priest was stabbed by a person who fled after the crime and who has yet to be identified.

The Diocese of Cuautitlán Izcalli expressed its sorrow over the death of the priest.

“While the pertinent inquiries are being conducted by the experts, we pray to God for his eternal rest and ask everyone to join in this intention,” the diocese said in a statement.

Bishop Alfonso Miranda, secretary general of the Mexican Bishops Conference, expressed his condolences on Twitter for the death of Fr. Alcántara Díaz and of “all the victims of the enormous amount of violence in Mexico. God help us.”

Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes also lamented the murder, offering prayers that “hope in the Resurrection strengthen the bishop and faithful.”

Last month Bishop Ramón Castro Castro of Cuernavaca called the murder of priests in Mexico a “painful phenomenon which has darkened the country’s horizon.”

The bishop encouraged the faithful to fight to eradicate organized crime from the country with the Gospel, always seeking justice and peace.

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Santiago, Chile, Mar 24, 2018 / 12:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pregnant mothers carrying children, volunteers, and staff of the Chile United Foundation celebrated the Day of the Unborn Child and Adoption on March 22 in front of Chile’s presidential palace.

For four years the NGO has gathered there to hand out carnations to passersby and to give them a message of hope, as a tribute to the unborn children they carry in their womb.

Chile passed a law  Sept. 23, 2017 permitting abortion if an unborn child is judged to be “non-viable,” if a pregnancy poses risk to the life of the mother, and in cases of rape.

Initiatives like Chile United’s celebration demonstrate that it is necessary to “continue working day and night with more effort than ever to be there for the woman in that crucial moment,” Veronica Hoffman, executive director of Chile United, told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language news partner of CNA.

“When you give emotional support, welcome, and accompany her, women decide to continue with pregnancy,” Hoffman said.

“What we are calling for today is to strengthen support programs nationwide,”she added.

Chile United has programs of support for women and their children, but the recently passed abortion law also requires government support for women who chose to continue with a pregnancy.

The Chile United Foundation has been working for 19 years for the development of social and cultural values for human progress in the country. Their efforts include a support program for women in crisis pregnancies, which has supported the birth of some 5,000 children, such as Yasna Gonzalez’s child.

Yasna told ACI Prensa that after overcoming cervical cancer, she went through a difficult pregnancy with her fourth child when she was 43. Her husband and some of the children reproached her, and even her boss at work advised her to abort.

In a moment of anguish, she said she found the Chile United Foundation. “They gave me everything, all the love, the emotional support, to be able to have my child,” she said.

Today Yasna tearfully recalls that period, but “I see my child who’s already six and he is everything for me, he’s my little piece of heaven,” she said.

Another woman at the demonstration told ACI Prensa that she is 38 weeks pregnant, she does not have any relatives in Chile, and she already has a seven-year-old child.

For her, the Chile United Foundation is “like a family” that has protected her, helped her to find a job and, and provided material assistance.

Passerby Kristli Guerrero was delighted to get the carnation. “What they’re doing is a beautiful thing and there ought to be more awareness, more programs,” she said.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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