After over a year had passed since the murder of two Jesuit priests in Mexico in 2022, gunfire was recently directed towards the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Inside the Church, Father Enrique Urza discovered evidence of gunfire and located three children he managed to rescue.

Priest Rescues Three Children

Father Enrique Urza, Our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral in Guachochi’s Pastor, noted that Wednesday, June 21, would mark the first anniversary since the assassination of the Jesuit priests Javier Campos Morales and Joaquin César Mora Salazar. Father Urza noted that they are located in the Diocese of Tarahumara in Chihuahua, a neighborhood with a permanent presence of criminals. A report from the Catholic News Agency stated that the city of Guachochi, which serves as the administrative hub for the Diocese of Tarahumara, is just around nine miles away from Santa Anita. On Tuesday, June 6, Father Urza arrived in Santa Anita and reported that his situation there was distressing.

The Cathedral and the modest chamber that acted as a welcoming center for the missionaries who came to the village to evangelize were both entirely obliterated in the fire. Since there are an excessive number of gunshot holes both inside and outside the building, the priest speculated that the perpetrators deliberately targeted the place of worship. “I don’t think that an armed gang can have something against us, against the Church. I don’t want to think that, but this is the fact,” he asserted.

As per Herald Malaysia, over 700 spent bullet casings, a grenade, 19 cartridges, and a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck that had been “completely charred” were discovered at the scene, according to the office of the attorney general for the state of Chihuahua. Also, a lifeless body of an unnamed male, roughly 35 years old, was reportedly found on the boundaries of the community’s Church. The head had been severed from the man’s body, who was dressed in olive-colored military-style clothing.

On the other hand, the human drama that occurred in the Church was even more distressing. According to Father Urza, he came across three deserted youngsters who had been left at the house of worship. One of the children he saved was only one year old, while the other two were 9 and 11 years old, respectively. The priest also claimed that he came upon them without food and brought them to the local parish to feed them and figure out what else he could do to assist them.

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Violence in Mexico

The current six-year tenure of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has seen more homicides than any of his predecessors, with a total of over 156,136 as of Wednesday, May 31. Catholic Masses stated that going through its most violent time in modern history. During his morning press conference on Thursday, June 1, López Obrador recognized the unprecedented record but blamed it on “a poor security legacy” left by past governments. Accordingly, there have been 567 first-degree murders documented in the state of Chihuahua as of April. While in Mexico, there have been 11,475 documented homicides between the first of the year and June 5 of this year.

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