In Mexico and Spain, friends and family remain in prayer for the recovery of Fr. Héctor Alejandro Pérez, a Mexican priest who was injured with a firearm last Monday, June 30 in Villahermosa, capital of the state of Tabasco.
As reported by the bishop of the Diocese, Mons. Gerardo de Jesús Rojas López, the attack occurred in the morning, when the presbyter left his parish home with the intention of visiting a patient.
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The Bishop of Tabasco said that the attack seems to have originated in “a confusion with some other person. Father Hector left his parish home to go to attend a patient at his home.”
Ordered in 2020, Fr. Héctor Alejandro was just going to turn a year at the head of the parish of San Francisco de Asís when the aggression occurred. He studied at the Bidasoa International Seminar, in Pamplona (Spain), and obtained the Bachelor of Theology from the University of Navarra.
During those years he filed a close friendship with the Spanish priest Javier Sánchez-Cervera, with whom he shared various pastoral experiences.
Fr. Javier told ACI Press that the last time he saw it was in June 2024. Before that, they celebrated the solemnity of Corpus Christi together and made some excursions. He even accompanied him to visit his religious sister in the Cantalapiedra convent in Salamanca.
A priest “with easy smile” and willing to “serve others”
The Spanish priest described him as a “very helpful, very willing, very attentive, very happy” person, and also stressed that he is “very pious, very devoted to the Virgin and, specifically, of the Virgin of Guadalupe.”
Although reserved, he stressed that it makes an effort to “overcome shyness for the desire to serve others (…) especially God.” He also defined it as someone of “very big heart, very arranged at service, and with easy smile, willing to help already serve others.”
Fr. Javier commented that, during the time they shared, Fr. Héctor Alejandro never expressed fear of the situation of violence in Mexico or showed concern about organized crime, “quite the opposite, he wanted to return to his diocese and serve in a parish and help people.”
Fr. Javier also recalled that his Mexican friend used to say that “he had learned in the parish to treat the Holy Spirit a lot and to trust the Holy Spirit.” Therefore, he encouraged the faithful “in the hands of the Holy Spirit and ask for the intercession of the Virgin of Guadalupe to ask for their recovery.”
Fr. Roberto Sánchez Cabrera, diocesan coordinator of the Pastoral of Communication, shared with ACI Press that the health status of P. Pérez has improved markedly since Monday, when the Diocese of Tabasco reported it as “very serious.”
On Thursday, July 3, Fr. Sánchez Cabrera reported: “It is very good, its process is slow but well. It is in intensive therapy because they are monitoring it 24 hours (…) fortunately, the father is going very well in his recovery process.”
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.