Priest murdered after condemning violence

A Mexican priest has been murdered in the state of Guerrero, three months after the disappearance of 43 students in the same area. Fr Gregorio Lopez was kidnapped last week and later found in a shallow grave with a bullet wound to his head.

The Mexican bishops said they deplored the murder and called for an end to the violence in Mexico, saying “we’ve had enough”. In the past year two priests have been killed by criminal gangs in Mexico and another was murdered in a robbery. The media arm of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference said that the country was now the most dangerous in Latin America for priests, adding that in the past 25 years 39 priests and religious had suffered a violent death.

It is not clear why Fr Lopez was killed. He was kidnapped while he was carrying the annual collection from the seminary where he was a teacher. He had spoken about the violence in Guerrero during his homily the day before he disappeared. In September the Mexican people were horrified by the kidnap of 43 students in Guerrero by local police during a protest. The students are believed to have been handed over to a drugs gang, which murdered them.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Norberto Rivera has said that families need to be strengthened if Mexico is to come through its current crisis. At the root of the problem was a lack of values, according to the cardinal, who described these as coming primarily from the family.
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