(File photo) A member of the Mexican army stands guard outside a Church in Urique, Mexico
By James Blears
May 25 2023
A Priest has been shot dead in the troubled Western Mexican State of Michocan. He’s the ninth to have been murdered nationwide during the last four years.
The shot man has been formally identified as Father Javier Garcia Villafana, an Augustinian Priest who according to the State Prosecutor’s Office was shot multiple times whilst in his car. No one has claimed responsibility or yet been arrested. He was the Pastor of St Marks Parish in the town of Capacho, having only been appointed there in the last month. The gruesome method of his killing is in the manner of organized crime, but it’s not known if he had taken issue with or rebuked powerful, violent and unpredictable local drug cartels, who regularly and routinely get away with cold blooded murder.
This killing follows an attack on the Archbishop of Durango in Northern Mexico, Monsignor Faustino Armendariz Jimenez by a disgruntled eighty year old man who tried to stab him in the vestry of his cathedral. He fortunately escaped unharmed.
The Mexican Bishop’s Conference said: “This is a pointed reminder of the serious situation that society faces, while organized crime and impunity continue to threaten the lives of so many.” – Vatican News
