Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Recife (Agenzia Fides) – Police sources have informed that 64 year-old Father Ramiro Ludeña, a native of Toledo (Spain) was killed yesterday, March 20, in Recife, in northeastern Brazil where he had been working 34 years in an association for children living on the streets. Fr. Ludeña was shot to death as he was getting out of his car in a parking lot. He was struck in the arm and another bullet passed through his thorax. The priest was taken to Hospital “Portugues,” where nothing could be done to save his life.
Brazilian police have a 15 year-old boy in custody who has confessed to the crime and say that they have found the weapon used in the crime: a 12-caliber rifle. The adolescent explained that he had tried to rob the 64 year-old priest, when he was in his car, and that he shot him because he thought the priest was looking for a weapon to defend himself.
The Spanish priest had lived in Brazil for 34 years and worked with the Movement “Apoyo a los Meninos de Rua (Mamer),” at the service of the youth in Jaboatao dos Guarapes, in the metropolitan area of Recife. According to friends of the priest, Fr. Ludeña was very loved and appreciated and had never received threats. He is described as tranquil, but “energetic and determined,” in promoting the work of the NGO. “He got along well with everyone; I can't imagine any reason why anyone would want to kill him,” the coordinator of the Mamer Project, Fernando Sergio Gomes, said. The President of Mamer, Rose Guareschi, also affirmed that he had no enemies: “We cannot be lead to believe that anyone who did so much good has been killed out of hate; there would be no reason for that,” she said. She also mentioned that the priest had worked for the past twenty years with 180 youth between the ages of 15 and 21 and had never received threats. “Working with teenagers is always tough, but in spite of this, he had never received threats,” she added.
Bishop Genival Saraiva of Palmares, the Diocese where the priest was working, described him as “a priest gifted with a great social sensibility, who worked to rescue children and youth from poverty and the temptation to take up a life of crime.”
Antonio Polidura, General Consul of Spain in Salvador de Bahia, has said that they are “trying to clarify the details of what occurred, as soon as possible. He was a person known here for his great work with the children living on the street.”
Once the autopsy has been performed on the priest's body, a wake was planned to be held at the Mamer Headquarters, beginning at 7pm local time and the burial is scheduled for 5pm local time today March 21, in the Saudade Cemetery, in Jaboatao, as he himself had expressed his wish to be buried in Brazil. A niece of the priest is expected to attend, coming over from Spain. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 21/3/2009)
