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Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 28, 2016 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With 15  priests killed in the last four years, Mexico is the most dangerous country to exercise priestly ministry in the entire world, Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico, said recently.

In a report published Sept. 21, the research unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center recorded 14 murders of priests from 2012 to 2016. The death of Fr. José Alfredo López Guillén, whose body was found the night of Sept. 24, brings that number to 15.

Speaking to CNA, Fr. Valdemar stated that “it has become clear that Mexico is the country where ministers of the Catholic Church are most at risk.”

“Which is even surprising because there is still more risk in Mexico than, for example, in Syria or in those countries where Christians are persecuted by the Islamic State.”

Just in the last week, three priests were murdered in the states of Veracruz and Michoacán. Fathers Alejo Nabor Jiménez Juárez and José Alfredo Juárez de la Cruz were kidnapped and then murdered in the town of Poza Rica inVeracruz.

Fr. López, the pastor of Janamuato, was kidnapped Sept. 19 in Michoacán. His body was found on Sept. 24 near Puruándiro.

In both cases Mexican authorities have sought to deny that these homicides were linked to organized crime, though Veracruz and Michoacán have faced years of violence from drug cartels.

Fr. Valdemar said that in these last three crimes “the states where they occurred, in a highly irresponsible way, have wanted to deny this was carried out by organized crime.” He charged that the state governments “don't want to accept the state of affairs with organized crime, which has become uncontrollable in these areas.”

He added that the kidnapping and murder of the three priests “demonstrates the gravity of the situation” in Mexico.

“If there is no respect for a priest, who are generally highly respected in Mexico, then you can imagine the rest of the population. If they kill, extort, and rob a priest, imagine what it's like for the rest of the population, which is even more vulnerable, more unprotected than are we priests.”

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Vatican City, Sep 28, 2016 / 08:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Upon learning about the death of Shimon Peres Wednesday, Pope Francis sent a telegram offering his condolences and his appreciation for the former president of Israel's tireless efforts for peace and the common good.

“As the State of Israel mourns Mr. Peres,” the Pope wrote, “I hope that his memory and many years of service will inspire us all to work with ever greater urgency for peace and reconciliation between peoples.”

In the Sept. 28 telegram, sent to current President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, the pontiff expressed hope that the work which Peres, 93, began during his lifetime will continue.

“I fondly recall my time with Mr. Peres at the Vatican and renew my great appreciation for the late President's tireless efforts in favor of peace,” he said.

Pope Francis met with the former president and prime minister at the Vatican on several occasions, the most recent being June 20.

On June 8, 2014, Pope Francis met with then-Israeli President Peres and the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I in the gardens of the Vatican for a meeting of prayer, “Invocation for Peace.”

At this meeting, Peres made a heart-felt appeal for peace, saying, “I come to call for peace between nations.” He acknowledged that “peace does not come easy.” Even if peace “seems distant,” the then-Israeli president continued, “we must pursue it to bring it close.”

“We are commanded to pursue peace,” he emphasized. Peres expressed his belief that “if we pursue peace with determination, with faith, we will reach it.” He recalled that in his life, he had seen both peace and warfare. He said he would never forget the devastation caused by war.

“We owe it to our children” to seek peace, he stressed.

The Pope and Peres also met a month earlier in 2014, on May 26, when Pope Francis expressed his hope that Jerusalem would be a true 'city of peace,' and Peres echoed this commitment.

“May Jerusalem be truly the City of Peace! May her identity and her sacred character, her universal religious and cultural significance shine forth as a treasure for all mankind,” Pope Francis said in the garden of the then-president's residence.

First elected to Israeli parliament in 1959, Peres would go on to serve three times as prime minister, and once as president.

Peres developed Israel’s nuclear program in the 1950s. He also ordered a major bombing campaign against Lebanon in retaliation for Hezbollah shelling in northern Israel in 1996.

However, he was also known for his peace efforts, playing a major role in the Oslo peace accords and winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to create peace between Israel and Palestine.

He had initially approved the construction of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian territory. However, he later shifted his view, saying that the settlements were a hindrance on the road to peace.

In his telegram today, the Pope said he was “deeply saddened” to learn of Peres' death and conveyed to President Rivlin and to all the people of Israel his “heartfelt condolences,” and prayers for all who grieve.

Pope Francis also invoked the divine blessing upon the nation of Israel.

Using Peres' life as inspiration, the Pope said, “In this way, his legacy will truly be honored and the common good for which he so diligently labored will find new expressions, as humanity strives to advance on the path towards enduring peace.”

 

 

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Abdalrhman Ismail, Reuters

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As a brief cease-fire agreement failed and Syrian government forces returned to bombing Aleppo and fighting rebels in the city streets, Pope Francis made a forceful appeal for assistance for the thousands of innocent civilians trapped in the besieged city.

"I appeal to the consciences of those responsible for the bombardments," Pope Francis said at the end of his weekly general audience Sept. 28. "They will have to account to God!"

Dozens of civilians were reportedly killed by the bombardments in late September and the U.N. World Food Program said it was "extremely concerned about the more than 250,000 people trapped in eastern Aleppo city who are cut off from food, water, medicine and other essential supplies."

Pope Francis told people gathered for his general audience that his thoughts and prayers were going "to the beloved and martyred Syria. I continue to receive dramatic news about the fate of Aleppo's population."

Expressing his "profound pain and deep concern for what is happening in this already martyred city," the pope told people that it is a place where death strikes "children, the elderly, the sick, young people, old people, everyone."

"I renew my appeal that everyone make a commitment with all their strength to the protection of civilians as a mandatory and urgent obligation," the pope said.

Pope Francis spoke as representatives of dozens of Catholic charitable organizations and leaders of Catholic communities in Syria and Iraq were arriving in Rome for a Sept. 29 meeting to coordinate Catholic emergency and humanitarian assistance to the victims of war, displaced people and refugees in the region.

Msgr. Giampietro Dal Toso from the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, which coordinates Catholic charitable giving, said the Catholic Church and Catholic charities have 12,000 workers trying to provide care for people in Syria, Iraq and neighboring countries.

"Just in Syria the victims of the war, according to U.N. data, already exceed 270,000," he said. More than 8.7 million Syrians have been forced from their homes and some 3.4 million Iraqis are still displaced.

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