The Roman Catholic priest from Spain found dead alongside a road outside Havana on Saturday was murdered in a highly unusual act of violence that stunned his church colleagues Monday.Rev. Eduardo de la Fuente Serrano, who was known for visiting prisoners and taking in immigrants' children, was found in a ditch near the Cuban National Zoo just west of Havana, and his burned car was located a few miles away in the city of Bauta, church officials said.
The Spanish news agency EFE reported that the priest had been stabbed.
''This is an extraordinary and unusual act for the Cuban church,'' the Archdiocese of Havana said in a statement.
De la Fuente began traveling to Cuba a decade ago filling in for vacationing Spanish priests. He moved there permanently about three years ago and took a job as a parish priest at Santa Clara de Asisi church in Havana's Lawton neighborhood.
`VERY SENSITIVE'
The church said he was 59 years old, but his colleagues said he was 61. He had been a priest for more than 30 years and had worked at a church in Madrid where he was remembered for taking in a family of ethnic Gypsy orphans, Spanish new outlets reported.
''That was part of his charm: He was a very good person who was very sensitive to those most in need,'' the Rev. Isidro Hoyos, a Spanish priest based in Cuba, said by telephone from Havana.
``We have no idea who could have done this. I can't even imagine it. It's a crime without explanation.''
The crime went unreported in the official Cuban state press, although word spread Sunday when priests announced it during Mass.
''There has been no information on the TV, newspaper or even the radio,'' Hoyos said.
``The information is on the streets, because the priests commented on it during Mass Sunday. We know his body was found dead, and that's it. Nobody knows anything.''
The church statement said that ''in the face of this tragic event, we implore God to grant eternal rest to Father Eduardo's soul and beg for mercy for the victimizers,'' the church statement said.
The Rev. Pedro Angel García of San Antonio de Padoua Parish in Havana's Miramar district said that de la Fuente was ``a simple man, frank and open.''
`A VERY GOOD MAN'
García, a Spaniard who has lived in Cuba for 21 years, told The Associated Press that de la Fuente had conducted Mass on Friday night, leading him to speculate that ``the incident probably took place in the early hours of Saturday morning.''
''He helped those who needed it most so much, finding them clothes, shoes, all kinds of things,'' García said.
``He even helped them do repairs on their houses.''
The priest's body is being sent to Spain later this week.
''He was a good man, a very good man,'' church secretary María Eugenia López told the EFE news agency.
``They don't know what they have done.''
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(Source: GNR)