The Martyrs you don't hear about

Below I posted about the new movie expose on the Boston diocese cover-up of pedophilia

But there is another story about priests that doesn't get in the headlines.

StrategyPage has an article on Mexico, and includes this factoid:

The body of a murdered Catholic priest was found on a rural road in Puebla state.  Since 2013 eleven priests have been found murdered in Mexico. Two priests remain missing. 

NatCatholic Register has the story HERE.

Besides the obvious contrast in beliefs, Father Muñoz said tension between drug dealers and Catholic clergy often escalates when cartel members and priests can’t see eye-to-eye on church services and participation in the sacraments. “A lot of times, you’re dealing with people who commit heinous crimes, and they have no remorse — they don’t seek confession.” Father Muñoz said. “But then they come here, to the Church, wanting us to perform baptisms and marriages.”

UKTelegraph article HERE The article claims 11 priests martyred during the last several years.


borderlandbeat website has a longer report.

What must be established, murders and kidnappings of priests receive little attention outside regional reporting hubs.  It is a perplexing, how a story of dozens of  priests being murdered by cartels during  2 administrations goes unrecognized, or for example, a story  about 5 priests being killed in November–December of 2013 in Tamaulipas and Veracruz,  is but a tiny blip on the media radar. 

They go into details.
Hmm...One of the murdered priests was a missionary...from Uganda, who dared to preach against violence.

but I wasn't aware that another reason was that the Catholic church was assisting the migrants from Central America.

Assisting Economic Migrants:   Migrants, mostly from Central America, are highly exploited by cartels, and are at the core of narco occupational diversification.  For example the sex trade, kidnapping, extortion, human trafficking, and forcible recruitment into cartel work including becoming sicarios (hitmen).  Those who shelter migrants and advocate for migrant issues, interrupt business, resulting in bottom line impact.  Catholic clergy are the operators of 95% of migrant shelters.  They are also their greatest advocacy group, in and out of Mexico.

The article goes into details about migrant abuse by Mexican drug cartels that are rarely mentioned in articles where Republicans criticize President Obama's desire to help these people.

Shoebat.com, a Christian website that usually posts about Christian persecution in the Middle East, has an article on the killings

reality shows that the Mexican problem next door rivals ISIS in its torture methods. The recovered bodies of priests depict odious, barbaric torture and killing

Caution: Graphic photos.

Sigh.

I know about such things because I knew how priests, doctors, nurses, nuns, pastor and their families were killed in a country when I worked in Africa as a young doc. Usually the motive was robbery, but other times it was payback for a sermon, or because the person had witnessed an atrocity and reported it.

Archbishop Romero pray for us: