On 30 June, Fr Héctor Alejandro Pérez was shot in the arm, chest and stomach by two men on motorcycles in the south-eastern state of Tabasco, shortly after he left his parish in the state capital Villahermosa around 5.45 a.m. to visit a sick person.
The Diocese of Tabasco reported that some of the gunshots lodged in his liver and other internal organs. His arm was fractured and a bullet grazed his head.
Bishop Gerardo de Jesús Rojas López of Tabasco appealed to the faithful to donate blood for Fr Pérez’s treatment. He denounced the shooting as a “barbaric act,” asking God to “move the hearts of the unjust aggressors to conversion and repentance”.
Local Church and civil authorities attributed the shooting to a case of mistaken identity amid drug-related violence in the region. In a social media post, the Mexican Bishops’ Conference described the shooting as “cowardly”.
A spokesman for the diocese said last week that Fr Pérez was “stable” after surgery and had begun to ingest liquids. His state of health remained “delicate”.
He became the parish priest of St Francis of Assisi church last year, after returning from studying at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and previously, the University of Navarre in Spain.
Fr Omar Sotelo, director of the Catholic Multimedia Centre, said that in the past 15 years Mexico had become the most dangerous country for priests in all Latin America.
He told EWTN News that priests were “severely harassed” in Mexico, where 26 churches are attacked or profaned every week.
Fr Sotelo said while Mexico was not technically “in a state of war” and the Church was not being “persecuted” as such, its members, premises, and pastoral work were subject to harassment.
Seven bishops, including cardinals, had been attacked by organised crime rackets in recent years, he said.
“When a priest is murdered, he is also defamed,” he added.