Priest Killed in Mexico

Victim of Robbery

MEXICO CITY, FEB. 19, 2010 (Zenit.org).- A 49-year-old Mexican priest was killed this week as assailants stole the van he was driving to take a Church employee home.

Father José Luis Parra Puerto, vicar at the Assumption Metropolitan Shrine, was killed in Mexico's federal district. He was driving a 21-year-old Church employee home.

The two were attacked at a gas station. The priest resisted the thieves, who shot him in the head and took the van with the wounded priest inside; the employee meanwhile went for help to the police.

The priest's body was found inside the van the next morning.

In addition to his work at the shrine, Father Parra Puerto was the chaplain for the Knights of Columbus in Mexico City.

Father Hugo Valdemar Romero, spokesman of the Primate Archdiocese of Mexico City, appealed to authorities to bring justice.

The spokesman referred to the murder as an "absolutely condemnable and sacrilegious crime" and said there was "great consternation in the archdiocese over the news."

"We call on the capital's authorities to carry out a rigorous investigation and to arrest the delinquents, but the real ones, because sometimes they create [false] cases and we hope it won't be like that," said Father Valdemar Romero.

The spokesman described Father Parra Puerto as an "exemplary and much loved priest."

José Luis Parra Puerto was born Aug. 5, 1960. He was ordained a priest in 1986 in the Archdiocese of Yucatan.