Oremus

Fr. Z has alerted us to this tragedy :

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Gunmen ordered a priest and two seminarians out of their vehicle and shot them dead in a drug-plagued region of western Mexico, authorities said Monday.

The three were killed as they drove through the town of Arcelia in Guerrero state to nearby Ciudad Altamirano to organize a spiritual retreat, said the Archbishop of Acapulco, Felipe Aguirre Franco.

Erit Montufar, Guerrero's director of investigative police, said no arrests have been made and no motive has been determined for the killings, which took place Saturday.

But Roman Catholic clergy in Mexico have complained that they are increasingly the targets of attacks and extortion demands as the nation wrestles with a wave of drug cartel-fueled violence.



"We have become hostages in this violent confrontations between the drug cartels living among us," Aguirre Franco said.

In April, priests in northern Mexico were urged to take extra precautions after an archbishop commented on where the nation's most-wanted trafficker may live.


Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.