Tej Francis
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
PRIEST FROM OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE BASILICA FOUND DEAD AFTER KIDNAPPING
(ACI Prensa) An 84-year-old priest of the Archdiocese of Mexico City was found dead in Cuernavaca, the capital of Mexico’s Morelos state, April 25. Fr. Moisés Fabila Reyes had been kidnapped on April 3. According to local media, his family had decided not to publicize the kidnapping, and to keep the Church out of the negotiations to free him.
Tests showed that the priest died from a heart attack. He had health issues before the kidnapping, reports said, which were likely exacerbated by the conditions of his captivity. Fr. Fabila entered the Conciliar Minor Seminary of Mexico at age 12. He was ordained a priest on June 29, 1961 in the Mexico City cathedral. Since 2001, he served as chaplain of the choir at the Guadalupe Basilica.
In a statement released April 26, the Archdiocese of Mexico City announced that Fr. Fabila’s body had been recovered the previous day. The archdiocese said it shares in “the overwhelming pain of the relatives and friends of Father Moisés Fabila.” “We lift up our prayers to God for the eternal rest of his soul, and that Our Lady of Guadalupe console them.”
The Mexican Bishops’ Conference also expressed “our profound solidarity with his relatives, parishioners, fellow canons of the basilica, as well as with the Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Aguiar Retes and the Rector of the National Basilica of Guadalupe, Msgr. Enrique Glennie Graue.”
PHILIPPINES
CATHOLIC PRIEST KILLED AFTER SAYING MASS AND BLESSING CHILDREN – RIP FR. MARK VENTURA
(Catholic News World) The Northern forum reports that a Catholic Missionary priest was shot dead after saying Mass. This occurred in the Philippines. The killers shot the parish priest in Gattaran town in Cagayan on Sunday morning, April 29. In a report reaching Cagayan provincial police Chief Senior Superintendent Warren Tolito, the victim was identified as Fr. Mark Anthony Yuaga Ventura, a resident of Barangay Naruangan in Tuao town.
Initial investigations showed Ventura had just finished saying the Holy Mass in Barangay Piña Weste Gymnasium when a man in helmet walked near and shot him twice. He was proclaimed dead on the spot. Police also said he was currently blessing the children and talking to the choir members when the assailants killed him.
In a statement, Tuguegarao Archbishop Sergio Utleg called the death of Ventura a “brutal and cowardly act. We just lost a young priest, zealous and dedicated, one who smelled like his sheep, to an assassin’s bullet right after he said Mass and was baptizing children.” The suspect, together with the driver of the single motorcycle, fled towards the highway going Baggao town, the report added. Police said motive has yet to determined.
Ventura was serving as the parish of San Isidro Labrador Mission Station based in remote Barangay Mabuno, also in Gattaran. Sources said he chose to be assigned in remote barangays because he is a missionary priest. He also served as a rector at the St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary in Lyceum of Aparri.
VIENNA, AUSTRIA
AUSTRIAN NUNCIO LAMENTS CHURCH OPPOSITION TO CROSSES ON BAVARIAN STATE BUILDINGS
(Cruxnow) The apostolic nuncio to Austria said Tuesday that he is “saddened and ashamed” that bishops and priests have been vocal critics of the Bavarian government’s mandate to display crosses in government buildings. “You know, as nuncio, as a representative of the Holy Father, I am saddened and ashamed, that when in a neighboring country crosses are erected, it is bishops and priests of all people who think they have to criticize the decision. That is a disgrace! That is unacceptable,” Archbishop Peter Zurbriggen said May 1 at the Benedict XVI Philosophical-Theological University in Heiligenkreuz.
The nuncio, who is 74, lamented such religious and political correctness. He noted that “We are in Heiligenkreuz,” which means in German “Holy Cross.” He was speaking at a “day of thanks” at the pontifical university, which is operated by Stift Heiligenkreuz, a Cistercian monastery located about 20 miles southwest of Vienna. “Many know that my Episcopal motto is ‘Sancta Crux, mihi lux’: Holy Cross, my light,” he added.
Zurbriggen added that it is similarly shameful that some bishops have removed their pectoral crosses while visiting sites in the Holy Land. “But then I think of … Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who recently visited Saudi Arabia and was received by the king. He wore a cross that was twice as big as that cross which I am wearing now. That is good!” Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, had met with King Salman in Riyadh April 18.
Zurbriggen’s comments come after Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising criticized the Bavarian government’s move, saying the cross is “a sign of opposition to violence, injustice, sin and death, but not a sign [of exclusion] against other people.” The cross can be misunderstood as purely a cultural symbol, he said, and thus misused by the state.
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