Bishops call for peace, prayer after gunmen kill boy in Mexican church

Diego Lopez Marina   By Diego Lopez Marina for CNA

May 23, 2022 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 1 Print

 

null / Daniel Ibañez/ACI Prensa

Lima, Peru, May 23, 2022 / 14:53 pm (CNA).

A three-year-old boy was killed by gang members who opened fire inside a church in Fresnillo in the Mexican state of Zacatecas.

Their intended target was a young man they were pursuing who fled into the church.

The boy was attending Mass with his mother and was killed in the hail of bullets unleashed by the gunmen.

“We are saddened and alarmed by the killing of a three-year-old boy inside the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, where armed men entered following a man whom they wounded. Our condolences to the family of this little boy,” the Mexican Bishops’ Conference said in a May 20 statement.

The local press reported that two armed men entered the church and let loose a burst of fire at a young man they were chasing, who died later from his wounds in a hospital May 20.

The three-year-old boy named Caleb died instantly when struck by the bullets.

In their statement, the Mexican bishops said that “this shows that all limits of violence and human respect are being exceeded.”

“We once again call on everyone to lay down their arms and put an end to all forms of violence, because all of us can be builders of peace. No one has the right to attack the life of his brother and there is nothing that justifies such violence,” the bishops stressed.

In their message, the prelates also remembered Fr. José Guadalupe Rivas, who was beaten to death May 17.

“We send our most heartfelt condolences to the family of Father José Guadalupe and to the family of the other murdered brother, as well as to the Archbishop of Tijuana, Don Francisco Moreno Barrón, and to his entire Church,” they said.

The bishops called on the faithful to continue “praying for our authorities so that they find the best paths for pacification and security that we all need and desire.”

“Let us pray for the criminals so they repent and change their lives. Let us pray for everyone so that we become peace builders.” the bishops concluded.

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In Rome, Nicaraguan bishops will inform pope of worsening crisis

June 27, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Managua, Nicaragua, Jun 27, 2018 / 06:01 am (ACI Prensa).- As the situation in Nicaragua continues to deteriorate, two of the country’s bishops are travelling to Rome, where they will brief Pope Francis on the state of affairs in their nation.

Cardinal Leopoldo José Brenes Solorzano of Managua and Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos of Matagalpa will “inform the Holy Father of the pain and suffering  we Nicaraguans are going through and the impetus we have given to the dialogue we are participating in at the request of the government and with the trust and support of the people,” read a statement of the Nicaraguan bishops’ conference.

Cardinal Brenes is going to Rome to participate in the June 29 consistory of cardinals.

The Nicaraguan bishops expressed to the people their “closeness and accompaniment especially in this painful time” in their statement.

They asked the faithful to accompany Cardinal Brenes and Bishop Álvarez with their prayers and also requested the intercession of the Virgin Mary.

Two months of protests against Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega have resulted in more than 200 deaths. The country’s bishops have mediated on-again, off-again peace talks between the government and opposition groups.

Protests began April 18 after Ortega announced social security and pension reforms. The changes were soon abandoned in the face of widespread, vocal opposition, but protests only intensified after more than 40 protestors were killed by security forces initially.

The Church in Nicaragua was quick to acknowledge the protestors’ complaints. Barricades and roadblocks are now found throughout the country, and clashes frequently turn lethal.

Peace talks resumed June 25 under the Church’s mediation.

But the day prior, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights charged that Diriamba, Managua, Masaya, Matagalpa, Nagarote, and Tipitapa were attacked June 24 by “combined forces” made up of regular  police, riot police, paramilitaries, and pro-government vigilantes.

It was reported that two people died in Managua and one in Tipitapa. In Nagarote four were reported injured.

Four people, including an 15-month-old infant, were killed in Managua June 23 when security forces fired on protesters at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua , according to activists.

Karina Navarrete, the mother of Teiler Lorio Navarrete, said she saw her son struck by a bullet fired by police while he was being taken to a babysitter. The government has denied her claim, and has blamed local criminals for the death.

On June 21 Cardinal Brenes, along with the  Auxiliary Bishop of  Managua, Silvio José Báez Ortega; and the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Stanislaw Waldemar Sommertag went to Masaya to prevent further attacks against the population.

Bishops and priests across Nicaragua have worked to separate protestors and security forces, and have been threatened and shot.

Church-mediated peace talks had begun May 16 and were suspended May 23, and began again June 15 and were called off June 19. The latest round began June 25.

The Nicaraguan government has suggested that protestors are killing their own supporters so as to destabilize Ortega’s administration.

The pension reforms which triggered the unrest were modest, but protests quickly turned to Ortega’s authoritarian bent.

Ortega has shown resistance to calls for elections, which are not scheduled until 2021, to be held early.

Ortega has been president of Nicaragua since 2007, and oversaw the abolition of presidential term limits in 2014.

He was a leader in the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which had ousted the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 and fought US-backed right-wing counterrevolutionaries during the 1980s. Ortega was also leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.

 

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

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