For Jesuit Father Rafael García, parish priest of the Sacred Heart in the Segundo Barrio, the martyrdom that his two religious brothers –Joaquín César Mora Salazar and Javier Campos Morales– faced in Cerocahui, Chihuahua, was “in a very brave way, defending to a person who was being threatened and who also died.”
“It is unfortunate but sadly it is happening with so many people and so many situations… in cities, at parties and in all contexts. It is an epidemic of violence that does not stop, ”he said, dejected by the event.
“They were fulfilling their mission and were killed,” Garcia said.
Committed to marginal populations, the Society of Jesus has had an intermittent presence for centuries in the Sierra Tarahumara.
They have been present on this border since before 1893, the year in which the Parroquia del Sagrado Corazón, sister to the church of the same name in Juárez, was built in the Segundo Barrio.
Father Rafael commented that although he does not know the details of the deadly attack against Fathers Campos Morales and Mora Salazar, as well as the person they tried to protect, the act is reprehensible.
“Any attack, a violent assault and above all the depriving of people’s lives is reprehensible, particularly being priests who were only doing was protecting a person who was seeking refuge,” said the priest who has served the community Mexican and Mexican-American directly since its ordination in 1993.
Although he did not personally know the deceased priests, he said he maintains a relationship with other brothers of the congregation who follow his ministry fervently in other places in the Sierra Tarahumara.
And it is that as missionaries who face the real world, they carry out their ministry in three main areas: Catholic formation, strengthening spirituality and promoting a vibrant life integrated with the sacraments.
For the Catholics of El Paso, as for the rest of the followers of Jesus, the slaughter of their spiritual leaders is inadmissible, so they ask for justice for those responsible, but above all that the authorities fulfill their responsibility, which is to guarantee security. everyone’s public.
“I cannot believe that people dedicated to the service of God, who instill a model of life with humility and love, end up like this at the hands of criminals. What else will we have to see in our beloved Mexico?”, said Mrs. Josefina Rentería, upon hearing the fatal news.
Throughout its history, the religious order founded by San Ignacio de Loyola has been part of the social fabric of the Sierra Tarahumara, where its members have overflowed their passion for the dispossessed in indigenous communities.
“What I know is that the Jesuits have had a very long presence and have been very loved in the Sierra Tarahumara and throughout the state of Chihuahua, like here in El Paso,” Father García said.
He stated that the religious community of the Segundo Barrio is made up, for the most part, of immigrants with needs and challenges that are directly related to their uprooted condition.
“Our parish, founded and managed by Jesuits, is the oldest in El Paso. We strive to extend the kingdom of God through the implementation of our pastoral program that aspires to evangelize in a complete and comprehensive way. Our ultimate goal is the formation and education of the complete human being: body, mind and spirit”.
In his message to the Catholic flock, but especially to the people of Mexico, he expressed that the way forward is to pray for the reestablishment of peace and security.
“We must pray and work as much as possible, especially in political life, so that we have a fairer and less violent world, that there is more justice and less violence so that families and people can live with dignity,” he said. shocked.
More than a century after its founding in 1893, the Church of the Sacred Heart continues to be an anchor in the neighborhood known as the “Second Neighborhood.”
The original church was replaced in 1928-29 by the current one with a capacity of two thousand people. The church was said to have been expanded to accommodate Mexican worshipers during the era of religious persecution in Mexico.