{"id":16185,"date":"2016-09-28T12:08:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T12:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest-58017\/"},"modified":"2016-09-28T12:08:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-28T12:08:00","slug":"mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico may be the most dangerous country to be a priest"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Zocalo_de_Mexico_Credit_Sal_Trabanca_via_Flickr_CC_BY_NC_SA_20_CNA.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 28, 2016 \/ 06:08 am (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- With 15\u00a0 priests killed in the last four years, Mexico is the most dangerous country to exercise priestly ministry in the entire world, Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico, said recently.<\/p>\n<p>In a report published Sept. 21, the research unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center recorded 14 murders of priests from 2012 to 2016. The death of Fr. Jos\u00e9 Alfredo L\u00f3pez Guill\u00e9n, whose body was found the night of Sept. 24, brings that number to 15.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to CNA, Fr. Valdemar stated that \u201cit has become clear that Mexico is the country where ministers of the Catholic Church are most at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich is even surprising because there is still more risk in Mexico than, for example, in Syria or in those countries where Christians are persecuted by the Islamic State.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just in the last week, three priests were murdered in the states of Veracruz and Michoac\u00e1n. Fathers Alejo Nabor Jim\u00e9nez Ju\u00e1rez and Jos\u00e9 Alfredo Ju\u00e1rez de la Cruz were kidnapped and then murdered in the town of Poza Rica inVeracruz.<\/p>\n<p>Fr. L\u00f3pez, the pastor of Janamuato, was kidnapped Sept. 19 in Michoac\u00e1n. His body was found on Sept. 24 near Puru\u00e1ndiro.<\/p>\n<p>In both cases Mexican authorities have sought to deny that these homicides were linked to organized crime, though Veracruz and Michoac\u00e1n have faced years of violence from drug cartels.<\/p>\n<p>Fr. Valdemar said that in these last three crimes \u201cthe states where they occurred, in a highly irresponsible way, have wanted to deny this was carried out by organized crime.\u201d He charged that the state governments \u201cdon't want to accept the state of affairs with organized crime, which has become uncontrollable in these areas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that the kidnapping and murder of the three priests \u201cdemonstrates the gravity of the situation\u201d in Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there is no respect for a priest, who are generally highly respected in Mexico, then you can imagine the rest of the population. If they kill, extort, and rob a priest, imagine what it's like for the rest of the population, which is even more vulnerable, more unprotected than are we priests.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=V_tSqqLL0fE:FqqY_OX2YY8:yIl2AUoC8zA\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/V_tSqqLL0fE\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Zocalo_de_Mexico_Credit_Sal_Trabanca_via_Flickr_CC_BY_NC_SA_20_CNA.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 28, 2016 \/ 06:08 am (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" target=\"_self\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- With 15&nbsp; priests killed in the last four years, Mexico is the most dangerous country to exercise priestly ministry in the entire world, Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico, said recently.<\/p>\n<p>In a report published Sept. 21, the research unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center recorded 14 murders of priests from 2012 to 2016. The death of Fr. Jos&eacute; Alfredo L&oacute;pez Guill&eacute;n, whose body was found the night of Sept. 24, brings that number to 15.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to CNA, Fr. Valdemar stated that &ldquo;it has become clear that Mexico is the country where ministers of the Catholic Church are most at risk.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Which is even surprising because there is still more risk in Mexico than, for example, in Syria or in those countries where Christians are persecuted by the Islamic State.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Just in the last week, three priests were murdered in the states of Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n. Fathers Alejo Nabor Jim&eacute;nez Ju&aacute;rez and Jos&eacute; Alfredo Ju&aacute;rez de la Cruz were kidnapped and then murdered in the town of Poza Rica inVeracruz.<\/p>\n<p>Fr. L&oacute;pez, the pastor of Janamuato, was kidnapped Sept. 19 in Michoac&aacute;n. His body was found on Sept. 24 near Puru&aacute;ndiro.<\/p>\n<p>In both cases Mexican authorities have sought to deny that these homicides were linked to organized crime, though Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n have faced years of violence from drug cartels.<\/p>\n<p>Fr. Valdemar said that in these last three crimes &ldquo;the states where they occurred, in a highly irresponsible way, have wanted to deny this was carried out by organized crime.&rdquo; He charged that the state governments &ldquo;don&#8217;t want to accept the state of affairs with organized crime, which has become uncontrollable in these areas.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>He added that the kidnapping and murder of the three priests &ldquo;demonstrates the gravity of the situation&rdquo; in Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If there is no respect for a priest, who are generally highly respected in Mexico, then you can imagine the rest of the population. If they kill, extort, and rob a priest, imagine what it&#8217;s like for the rest of the population, which is even more vulnerable, more unprotected than are we priests.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=V_tSqqLL0fE:FqqY_OX2YY8:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/V_tSqqLL0fE\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mexico may be the most dangerous country to be a priest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 28, 2016 \/ 06:08 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- With 15&nbsp; priests killed in the last four years, Mexico is the most dangerous country to exercise priestly ministry in the entire world, Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico, said recently. In a report published Sept. 21, the research unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center recorded 14 murders of priests from 2012 to 2016. The death of Fr. Jos&eacute; Alfredo L&oacute;pez Guill&eacute;n, whose body was found the night of Sept. 24, brings that number to 15. Speaking to CNA, Fr. Valdemar stated that &ldquo;it has become clear that Mexico is the country where ministers of the Catholic Church are most at risk.&rdquo; &ldquo;Which is even surprising because there is still more risk in Mexico than, for example, in Syria or in those countries where Christians are persecuted by the Islamic State.&rdquo; Just in the last week, three priests were murdered in the states of Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n. Fathers Alejo Nabor Jim&eacute;nez Ju&aacute;rez and Jos&eacute; Alfredo Ju&aacute;rez de la Cruz were kidnapped and then murdered in the town of Poza Rica inVeracruz. Fr. L&oacute;pez, the pastor of Janamuato, was kidnapped Sept. 19 in Michoac&aacute;n. His body was found on Sept. 24 near Puru&aacute;ndiro. In both cases Mexican authorities have sought to deny that these homicides were linked to organized crime, though Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n have faced years of violence from drug cartels. Fr. Valdemar said that in these last three crimes &ldquo;the states where they occurred, in a highly irresponsible way, have wanted to deny this was carried out by organized crime.&rdquo; He charged that the state governments &ldquo;don&#039;t want to accept the state of affairs with organized crime, which has become uncontrollable in these areas.&rdquo; He added that the kidnapping and murder of the three priests &ldquo;demonstrates the gravity of the situation&rdquo; in Mexico. &ldquo;If there is no respect for a priest, who are generally highly respected in Mexico, then you can imagine the rest of the population. If they kill, extort, and rob a priest, imagine what it&#039;s like for the rest of the population, which is even more vulnerable, more unprotected than are we priests.&rdquo;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mexico may be the most dangerous country to be a priest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 28, 2016 \/ 06:08 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- With 15&nbsp; priests killed in the last four years, Mexico is the most dangerous country to exercise priestly ministry in the entire world, Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico, said recently. In a report published Sept. 21, the research unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center recorded 14 murders of priests from 2012 to 2016. The death of Fr. Jos&eacute; Alfredo L&oacute;pez Guill&eacute;n, whose body was found the night of Sept. 24, brings that number to 15. Speaking to CNA, Fr. Valdemar stated that &ldquo;it has become clear that Mexico is the country where ministers of the Catholic Church are most at risk.&rdquo; &ldquo;Which is even surprising because there is still more risk in Mexico than, for example, in Syria or in those countries where Christians are persecuted by the Islamic State.&rdquo; Just in the last week, three priests were murdered in the states of Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n. Fathers Alejo Nabor Jim&eacute;nez Ju&aacute;rez and Jos&eacute; Alfredo Ju&aacute;rez de la Cruz were kidnapped and then murdered in the town of Poza Rica inVeracruz. Fr. L&oacute;pez, the pastor of Janamuato, was kidnapped Sept. 19 in Michoac&aacute;n. His body was found on Sept. 24 near Puru&aacute;ndiro. In both cases Mexican authorities have sought to deny that these homicides were linked to organized crime, though Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n have faced years of violence from drug cartels. Fr. Valdemar said that in these last three crimes &ldquo;the states where they occurred, in a highly irresponsible way, have wanted to deny this was carried out by organized crime.&rdquo; He charged that the state governments &ldquo;don&#039;t want to accept the state of affairs with organized crime, which has become uncontrollable in these areas.&rdquo; He added that the kidnapping and murder of the three priests &ldquo;demonstrates the gravity of the situation&rdquo; in Mexico. &ldquo;If there is no respect for a priest, who are generally highly respected in Mexico, then you can imagine the rest of the population. If they kill, extort, and rob a priest, imagine what it&#039;s like for the rest of the population, which is even more vulnerable, more unprotected than are we priests.&rdquo;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-28T12:08:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Zocalo_de_Mexico_Credit_Sal_Trabanca_via_Flickr_CC_BY_NC_SA_20_CNA.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest\/\",\"name\":\"Mexico may be the most dangerous country to be a priest\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-28T12:08:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-28T12:08:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 28, 2016 \/ 06:08 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- With 15&nbsp; priests killed in the last four years, Mexico is the most dangerous country to exercise priestly ministry in the entire world, Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico, said recently. In a report published Sept. 21, the research unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center recorded 14 murders of priests from 2012 to 2016. The death of Fr. Jos&eacute; Alfredo L&oacute;pez Guill&eacute;n, whose body was found the night of Sept. 24, brings that number to 15. Speaking to CNA, Fr. Valdemar stated that &ldquo;it has become clear that Mexico is the country where ministers of the Catholic Church are most at risk.&rdquo; &ldquo;Which is even surprising because there is still more risk in Mexico than, for example, in Syria or in those countries where Christians are persecuted by the Islamic State.&rdquo; Just in the last week, three priests were murdered in the states of Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n. Fathers Alejo Nabor Jim&eacute;nez Ju&aacute;rez and Jos&eacute; Alfredo Ju&aacute;rez de la Cruz were kidnapped and then murdered in the town of Poza Rica inVeracruz. Fr. L&oacute;pez, the pastor of Janamuato, was kidnapped Sept. 19 in Michoac&aacute;n. His body was found on Sept. 24 near Puru&aacute;ndiro. In both cases Mexican authorities have sought to deny that these homicides were linked to organized crime, though Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n have faced years of violence from drug cartels. Fr. Valdemar said that in these last three crimes &ldquo;the states where they occurred, in a highly irresponsible way, have wanted to deny this was carried out by organized crime.&rdquo; He charged that the state governments &ldquo;don't want to accept the state of affairs with organized crime, which has become uncontrollable in these areas.&rdquo; He added that the kidnapping and murder of the three priests &ldquo;demonstrates the gravity of the situation&rdquo; in Mexico. &ldquo;If there is no respect for a priest, who are generally highly respected in Mexico, then you can imagine the rest of the population. 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In a report published Sept. 21, the research unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center recorded 14 murders of priests from 2012 to 2016. The death of Fr. Jos&eacute; Alfredo L&oacute;pez Guill&eacute;n, whose body was found the night of Sept. 24, brings that number to 15. Speaking to CNA, Fr. Valdemar stated that &ldquo;it has become clear that Mexico is the country where ministers of the Catholic Church are most at risk.&rdquo; &ldquo;Which is even surprising because there is still more risk in Mexico than, for example, in Syria or in those countries where Christians are persecuted by the Islamic State.&rdquo; Just in the last week, three priests were murdered in the states of Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n. Fathers Alejo Nabor Jim&eacute;nez Ju&aacute;rez and Jos&eacute; Alfredo Ju&aacute;rez de la Cruz were kidnapped and then murdered in the town of Poza Rica inVeracruz. Fr. L&oacute;pez, the pastor of Janamuato, was kidnapped Sept. 19 in Michoac&aacute;n. His body was found on Sept. 24 near Puru&aacute;ndiro. In both cases Mexican authorities have sought to deny that these homicides were linked to organized crime, though Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n have faced years of violence from drug cartels. Fr. Valdemar said that in these last three crimes &ldquo;the states where they occurred, in a highly irresponsible way, have wanted to deny this was carried out by organized crime.&rdquo; He charged that the state governments &ldquo;don't want to accept the state of affairs with organized crime, which has become uncontrollable in these areas.&rdquo; He added that the kidnapping and murder of the three priests &ldquo;demonstrates the gravity of the situation&rdquo; in Mexico. &ldquo;If there is no respect for a priest, who are generally highly respected in Mexico, then you can imagine the rest of the population. If they kill, extort, and rob a priest, imagine what it's like for the rest of the population, which is even more vulnerable, more unprotected than are we priests.&rdquo;","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mexico may be the most dangerous country to be a priest","og_description":"Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 28, 2016 \/ 06:08 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- With 15&nbsp; priests killed in the last four years, Mexico is the most dangerous country to exercise priestly ministry in the entire world, Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico, said recently. In a report published Sept. 21, the research unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center recorded 14 murders of priests from 2012 to 2016. The death of Fr. Jos&eacute; Alfredo L&oacute;pez Guill&eacute;n, whose body was found the night of Sept. 24, brings that number to 15. Speaking to CNA, Fr. Valdemar stated that &ldquo;it has become clear that Mexico is the country where ministers of the Catholic Church are most at risk.&rdquo; &ldquo;Which is even surprising because there is still more risk in Mexico than, for example, in Syria or in those countries where Christians are persecuted by the Islamic State.&rdquo; Just in the last week, three priests were murdered in the states of Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n. Fathers Alejo Nabor Jim&eacute;nez Ju&aacute;rez and Jos&eacute; Alfredo Ju&aacute;rez de la Cruz were kidnapped and then murdered in the town of Poza Rica inVeracruz. Fr. L&oacute;pez, the pastor of Janamuato, was kidnapped Sept. 19 in Michoac&aacute;n. His body was found on Sept. 24 near Puru&aacute;ndiro. In both cases Mexican authorities have sought to deny that these homicides were linked to organized crime, though Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n have faced years of violence from drug cartels. Fr. Valdemar said that in these last three crimes &ldquo;the states where they occurred, in a highly irresponsible way, have wanted to deny this was carried out by organized crime.&rdquo; He charged that the state governments &ldquo;don't want to accept the state of affairs with organized crime, which has become uncontrollable in these areas.&rdquo; He added that the kidnapping and murder of the three priests &ldquo;demonstrates the gravity of the situation&rdquo; in Mexico. &ldquo;If there is no respect for a priest, who are generally highly respected in Mexico, then you can imagine the rest of the population. If they kill, extort, and rob a priest, imagine what it's like for the rest of the population, which is even more vulnerable, more unprotected than are we priests.&rdquo;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2016-09-28T12:08:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Zocalo_de_Mexico_Credit_Sal_Trabanca_via_Flickr_CC_BY_NC_SA_20_CNA.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest\/","name":"Mexico may be the most dangerous country to be a priest","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-09-28T12:08:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-28T12:08:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 28, 2016 \/ 06:08 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- With 15&nbsp; priests killed in the last four years, Mexico is the most dangerous country to exercise priestly ministry in the entire world, Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico, said recently. In a report published Sept. 21, the research unit of the Catholic Multimedia Center recorded 14 murders of priests from 2012 to 2016. The death of Fr. Jos&eacute; Alfredo L&oacute;pez Guill&eacute;n, whose body was found the night of Sept. 24, brings that number to 15. Speaking to CNA, Fr. Valdemar stated that &ldquo;it has become clear that Mexico is the country where ministers of the Catholic Church are most at risk.&rdquo; &ldquo;Which is even surprising because there is still more risk in Mexico than, for example, in Syria or in those countries where Christians are persecuted by the Islamic State.&rdquo; Just in the last week, three priests were murdered in the states of Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n. Fathers Alejo Nabor Jim&eacute;nez Ju&aacute;rez and Jos&eacute; Alfredo Ju&aacute;rez de la Cruz were kidnapped and then murdered in the town of Poza Rica inVeracruz. Fr. L&oacute;pez, the pastor of Janamuato, was kidnapped Sept. 19 in Michoac&aacute;n. His body was found on Sept. 24 near Puru&aacute;ndiro. In both cases Mexican authorities have sought to deny that these homicides were linked to organized crime, though Veracruz and Michoac&aacute;n have faced years of violence from drug cartels. Fr. Valdemar said that in these last three crimes &ldquo;the states where they occurred, in a highly irresponsible way, have wanted to deny this was carried out by organized crime.&rdquo; He charged that the state governments &ldquo;don't want to accept the state of affairs with organized crime, which has become uncontrollable in these areas.&rdquo; He added that the kidnapping and murder of the three priests &ldquo;demonstrates the gravity of the situation&rdquo; in Mexico. &ldquo;If there is no respect for a priest, who are generally highly respected in Mexico, then you can imagine the rest of the population. If they kill, extort, and rob a priest, imagine what it's like for the rest of the population, which is even more vulnerable, more unprotected than are we priests.&rdquo;","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/mexico-may-be-the-most-dangerous-country-to-be-a-priest\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mexico may be the most dangerous country to be a priest"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}