Mexico: Catechist shot dead in church

Bishop Jaime Calderon

Source: Fides

A catechism teacher was gunned down in a Catholic church in southern Mexico. Two young gunmen entered the Church of the Immaculate Conception as a formation course for new catechists was wrapping up. They began shooting at random. One bullet struck Margeli Lang Antonio. She died on the spot. The attack took place on Saturday in the town of Acacoyagua, in Mexico's southern Chiapas State.

Bishop Jaime Calderon, the local bishop of Tapachula, expressed his closeness to the woman's family and called on authorities to investigate the incident. At a press conference on Sunday, Bishop Calderon said society was breaking down and this was due to "a lack of integral health of local communities." He said: "When there is no work, rampant injustice, impunity, excessive greed, when a price is put on human life and everything revolves around money, the result is that anything can be bought and the rich command."

According to the Catholic Multimedia Centre, violence against the Catholic Church in Mexico, and against priests in particular, is carried out with the aim of "social destabilization."

The Centre's Director, Fr Omar Sotelo Aguilar, SSP, said the Church stands up for people's rights, putting it in direct opposition to organised crime. Killing a priest or terrorising a church, destabilises the community and creates a culture of silence that allows corruption to flourish and cartels to operate with impunity, Fr Aguilar said.

Separately, two Catholic students were killed in similarly violent circumstances over the past couple of weeks. Hugo Leonardo Avendaño Chávez and Norberto Ronquillo were kidnapped, tortured, and strangled to death.

Mexico's Bishops have openly called on the government to get to the root of the security crisis that is gripping the country.