Priests murdered in Colombia buried amid community protests

(Photo by Wikipedia.org)

Colombia (ODM) ― Father Bernardo Echeverry, 62, and Father Hector Fabio Cabrera, 35, who ministered at San Sebastian Roman Catholic parish, Roldanillo village, Valle department, were found murdered late Sept. 27.

Neighbours reported to police having seen two men running from the parish. Investigating officers found the priests' bodies in the residence they shared near the church.

Open Doors Colombia notes that in the last year alone, eight priests have been killed.

According to police and media reports, two men broke into the residence while the priests were celebrating 8 p.m. Mass and awaited the priests with knives. The murderers fled with offerings, a computer, and an iPad.

Local authorities convened a security council meeting where Ubeimar Delgado, governor of Valle, linked the double murder to organized crime. General Rodolfo Palomino, national police director, promised that his organization would not allow the snatching of this community's most sacred members: its spiritual leaders.

After the priests' Sept. 30 funeral, Roldanillo residents peacefully marched to demand justice for the murders.

In Medellín early Sept. 28, disabled priest Luis Javier Sarrázola Úsuga was found stabbed to death in his residence in Manrique neighborhood. According to media reports, a woman bringing a meal to Sarrázola Úsuga entered his home as an unidentified young man fled with a suitcase. The woman and neighbors found his body, which had been stabbed in the chest more than 30 times.

Sarrázola Úsuga, 48, operated a charity called by its acronym FUNEPALIS, or Educational Foundation for Peace and Social Freedom, which served the poor in Medellín's Carambolas neighborhood. Some media reports state that Sarrázola Úsuga was affiliated with the Anglican church.

According to the Episcopal Conference, in the last 29 years in Colombia 84 Roman Catholic priests and two bishops have been murdered.

Pray that the Lord would strengthen and sustain the families of these priests. Pray for the village of Roldanillo and Medellín's Carambolas neighborhood. Pray for the Lord's guidance for the new spiritual leaders appointed.
                                                               

Pakistan: Orphan Christian boy found brutally tortured and burned to death

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

Human Liberation Commission of Pakistan activists
 shout slogans during a protest against alleged
anti-Christian violence (AFP Photo/Arif Ali)

FAISALABAD, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- The violence against Christians in Pakistan is continuing unabated, and the latest shocking incident, monitored by the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net), involves a young Christian boy who was brutally tortured before being killed in Faisalabad, Pakistan, which is about 100 miles from Lahore.

According to reports, 11-year-old Samuel Yaqoob had been missing since the evening of August 20, when he had stepped out of his home in a Christian colony to go to the market to buy food for his family.

Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, who has been tracking this shocking case said, “After extensive searching his body was found near a drain in the Christian colony, bearing marks of horrific torture, with the murder weapon nearby.

“His nose, lips and belly had been sliced off, and his family could hardly recognize him because the body was so badly burnt. Some 23 wounds by a sharp weapon have been identified in the autopsy. When sending his body for an autopsy, police raised the possibility of sodomy.

“The police, and the mother, according to some reports named Asia Bibi [not the same Asia Bibi as the iconic blasphemy law death sentence victim], said that there had been no demands for ransom, nor any accusation of blasphemy.

“Parts of Pakistani culture have a strong homosexual pederast culture, and Christian and other minority boys are especially susceptible to rape and abuse because of the powerlessness of their community and their despised status,” added Chowdhry. “In one case fairly recently, a Christian boy was kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed by a police officer, his body similarly being dumped in a drain.”

Local Assistant Sub-Inspector Shafiq Ahmed said police were investigating “all aspects of the case.”

He said Yaqoob’s father died a few months ago and the family was “very poor”, which he said ruled out the possibility that he was kidnapped for ransom.

“We did not receive a complaint of blasphemy. However we are investigating this aspect as well. The autopsy will tell whether the boy was sodomized,” Ahmed said.

The killing comes days after an 11-year-old Christian girl with Down’s Syndrome was arrested by police in Islamabad on a charge of blasphemy for allegedly burning pages of the Quran.

Rimsha Masih’s family and dozens of Christians fled their homes due to threats from Muslims.

In that case, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari directed the Interior Ministry to investigate the incident and to provide protection to the local Christians.