“May God Grant us the Peace we so Long for and Let us Pray for the Conversion of the Criminals who Cause so much Pain in our Society.”
Newsroom (01/08/2022 3:30 PM, Gaudium Press) On the afternoon of July 29th, 2022, Father Felipe Vélez Jiménez, parish priest of San Gerardo María Mayela in Iguala, was hit by bullet in the municipality Chilapa-Guerrero,.
15In a statement, the Mexican Episcopal Conference reported that the priest was shot in the right cheek while driving.
In that statement, the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa “deeply regretted the attack on the life and integrity” of Fr. Felipe Velez and demanded that the authorities investigate the accuracy of these events, and stressed that the priest was attended to by medical experts, who reported that “he is in poor but stable health.”
“People need to know that the authorities and institutions responsible for security and the delivering of justice are working to protect and care for them, as well as to be assured that there was a constant in the delivery of justice, attention and investigation of the crimes.”
“We make our own demands of the society in which we live, to ‘have an environment of peace, tranquillity and security in Guerrero’. Because God the Father loves you very much. […] In the framework of the National Day of Peace, we make a call for the conversion of our brothers who with their crimes and offences sow so much pain and death. Convert yourselves to the Lord who never ceases to love us. Stop doing evil.”
The Catholic Multimedial Center (CCM), an ecclesiastical institution that keeps statistics of priests assaulted and murdered, reported on Thursday that with the assault of Fr. Vélez there are now seven cases of assault against priests in Mexico.
The attack on Father Velez is registered one month after two Jesuit priests were murdered in Chihuahua, and during the month of prayer and reflection to ask for peace in Mexico.
Compiled by Florence MacDonald
