The Diocese of Tabasco in Mexico reported Monday that one of its priests was injured by a firearm when it went out to serve a patient, in an attack that, it is believed, would have due to “a confusion with some other person.”
The bishop of the Diocese, Mons. Gerardo de Jesús Rojas López, shared a statement in which he reported that at approximately 5:45 am (local time), Fr. Héctor Alejandro Pérez, pastor of the church of San Francisco de Asís, located in Villahermosa, capital of the state of Tabasco, was attacked.
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“This aggression is believed to be the origin of a confusion with some other person. Father Hector left his parish home to go to attend a patient at home,” said Mons. Rojas López.
After the aggression, the priest was surgically intervened at noon. According to the bishop, his health status “is reported as very serious with a forecast reserved for blood loss and the complex of internal wounds.”
Likewise, Mons. Rojas López made an urgent call to the community to donate blood for the priest, who is being treated at the Regional Hospital of High Specialty Dr. Gustavo A. Rovirosa Pérez of that city.
The bishop also expressed the “total repudiation” of the Catholic Church in Tabasco “to this action of barbarism”, and asked God to “move the hearts of the unfair aggressors to conversion and repentance and, that all the faithful and people of good will join in the search for peace for our beloved Tabasco.”
The state governor, Javier May Rodríguez, lamented what happened against the priest and expressed at a press conference His solidarity with the Catholic Church, ensuring that “we are already working, it will not be unpunished (aggression) and we will find those responsible.”
Bishops of Mexico condemned the “cowardly attack”
The Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM) condemned the attack through a disseminated message In social networksin which he sympathized “before the cowardly armed attack perpetrated against Father Héctor Pérez.”
The country’s bishops raised their prayer “to the Lord of Life for the speedy recovery of Father Héctor, entrusting him to the protection of the Virgin Mary.” They also assured their support for the Diocese of Tabasco, the parish community of San Francisco de Asís, as well as their family and friends.
“That Christ, Prince of Peace, inspires and sustains our efforts to build a society where justice, reconciliation and respect for life prevail,” concluded the CEM.
Violence against the Catholic Church in Mexico
Mexico has been repeatedly considered one of the most dangerous countries for the priestly ministry and the preaching of faith. According to the Multimedial Catholic Center (CCM), an organism that records aggressions against the Catholic Church in the country, since 1990 80 priests, religious and laity have been killed. Of them 60 victims were priests, including a cardinal.
Between 2018 and 2024, during the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, 10 priests and a seminarian were killed. In addition, according to the study of the CCM, they were victims of violence in different degrees – as seals and robberies at the hands of organized crime and bullet wounds – six bishops and seven priests.
Diego López Colín
I am a graduate of journalism at the Carlos Septién García school with experience of religious institutional communication. Since 2016 I write for digital media and, since 2018, I report the most important news about the Catholic event in Mexico for the Ewtn news channel. ACI Press correspondent in Mexico since 2023.