Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to Mexico, voiced
prayers and expressed solidarity with the family members of a local
priest who was kidnapped last month.“In the Diocese of Zamora, there is a priest who disappeared days ago,” the nuncio explained. “He disappeared and nobody knows anything.”
Archbishop Pierre spoke at the conclusion of a Jan. 26 Mass in Guanajuato with 35,000 young people. He said that he is praying for Father Santiago Alvarez, who went missing on Dec. 27, 2012.
“(W)e know very well that this priest is one of thousands of people” who have been kidnapped, he said, adding that “there are thousands of families suffering like you.”
According to the Fides News Agency, Archbishop Pierre spoke about having met Fr. Alvarez and said that he shared in the sorrow of the priest’s local bishop.
“I also share in the suffering of thousands of mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who don’t know the whereabouts of their loved ones,” he said. “It is a tragedy.”
“We all long for greater justice,” he acknowledged, and while it is not always easy, “we all have to work, each one in his own place” to attain it.